Terrel
Old French form of the earth god Terén.
Name Census estimates that about 2,572 living Americans carry the first name Terrel. It is a predominantly male name (97.3% of registrations). The average person named Terrel today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Terrel births was 1989 (94 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Terrel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Terrel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Terrel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 81 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 133,264 Americans
Peak year
1989
94 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,756
Tracked since 1915
Census
Terrel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,283 people with the first name Terrel, which placed it at #6,876 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,876
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
57.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Terrel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terrel is Black at 57.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Terrel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Terrel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American57.2% · 1,306
- White32.1% · 732
- Two or more races5.2% · 119
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 73
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Terrel
Terrel leans heavily male at 97.3% of total registrations, but 81 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Terrel as a male name
- Ranked #10,756 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (94 births)
Terrel as a female name
- Ranked #12,343 in 1985
- 5 female births in 1985
- Peak: 1947 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Terrel leans strongly male. 2,121 people counted with this name were male (92.8%), compared with 164 female bearers (7.2%).
Popularity
Terrel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Terrel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 669 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Terrel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Terrel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Terrels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, Louisiana, California recorded the most babies named Terrel, while Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Terrel
The name Terrel is believed to have originated from the Old French word "terrail," which means "earth" or "land." This name likely came into existence during the medieval period in regions where Old French was spoken, such as parts of modern-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Terrel can be found in the 12th century French epic poem "La Chanson de Roland," where a character named Terrel is mentioned. This suggests that the name was in use among French speakers during that time period.
Terrel was also the name of a 13th-century French nobleman, Terrel de Marigny, who served as the Lord Chamberlain of France under King Philip IV. His birth and death years are not precisely known, but he lived during the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
In the 16th century, there was a French Protestant reformer named Terrel de Bèze, who was born in 1519 and died in 1605. He was a prominent figure in the Protestant Reformation and worked closely with John Calvin.
Another notable figure with the name Terrel was Terrel de Terville, a French military officer who lived in the 17th century. He was born in 1618 and died in 1701, and he played a significant role in various military campaigns during the reign of King Louis XIV.
In more recent times, there was an American actor named Terrel Tilford, who was born in 1959. He is best known for his roles in television shows such as "Barney Miller" and "Soul Food."
While the name Terrel has French origins, it has been used in various cultures and regions over the centuries. However, the details provided here focus primarily on its early history and notable individuals who bore this name throughout the centuries.
People
Terrel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Terrel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Terrel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Terrel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,572 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Terrel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 133,264 US residents.
Is Terrel a common name?
We classify Terrel as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,042 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Terrel most popular?
The single biggest year for Terrel was 1989, when 94 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Terrel is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Terrel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,283 people with the name Terrel, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,876 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Terrel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Terrel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Terrel leans strongly male. 2,121 people counted with this name were male (92.8%), compared with 164 female bearers (7.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Terrel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terrel is Black at 57.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Terrel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Terrel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.2% (1,306 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Terrel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Terrel a male name?
Yes, 97.3% of people registered as Terrel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Terrel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Terrel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Terrel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Terrel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.