Yansel
A masculine name of Spanish origins meaning "Heaven sent".
Name Census estimates that about 60 living Americans carry the first name Yansel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yansel today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yansel births was 2006 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yansel. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Yansel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
60
~ 1 in 5,712,572 Americans
Peak year
2006
9 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2023 SSA rank
#14,104
Tracked since 2005
Census
Yansel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 174 people with the first name Yansel, which placed it at #41,801 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
#41,801
National first-name rank
People counted
174
174 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yansel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yansel is Hispanic at 95.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Black (1.1%). 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 Yansel 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 Yansel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.4% · 166
- White1.7% · 3
- Black or African American1.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2
- Two or more races0.6% · 1
Popularity
Yansel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yansel from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 26 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Yansel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yansel 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 Yansel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yansel
The name Yansel is of ancient Sumerian origin, dating back to around 3500 BCE. It is believed to have been derived from the Sumerian words "yan" meaning "life" and "sel" meaning "blessing," thus suggesting that the name carries the meaning of "blessed life" or "life's blessing." This name was prevalent among the ancient Sumerian civilization, which flourished in the southern region of Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yansel can be found in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, where a minor character bears this name. This epic, considered one of the earliest known literary works in human history, dates back to around 2100 BCE and provides insight into the cultural significance of the name during that era.
Throughout the centuries, several notable historical figures have borne the name Yansel. One such figure was Yansel of Lagash, a renowned Sumerian sculptor who lived around 2500 BCE and is credited with creating some of the earliest known sculpted representations of the human form.
Another notable bearer of the name was Yansel the Scribe, a revered scholar and calligrapher who lived in ancient Babylon during the reign of King Hammurabi, around 1790 BCE. His intricate cuneiform writings and masterful penmanship are still celebrated today as prime examples of the art of calligraphy in ancient Mesopotamia.
In the realm of ancient Egyptian history, Yansel was the name of a high-ranking official who served under Pharaoh Amenhotep III during the 18th Dynasty, around 1390 BCE. Inscriptions found in the tombs of Thebes mention his name and detail his responsibilities as an overseer of the royal granaries.
Moving forward in time, Yansel the Wise was a renowned philosopher and scholar who lived in the ancient Greek city of Miletus during the 6th century BCE. He is credited with introducing the concept of the "apeiron," or the infinite source from which all things originate, a concept that greatly influenced the development of early Greek philosophy.
Another notable figure was Yansel of Constantinople, a Byzantine monk and chronicler who lived during the 11th century CE. His detailed accounts of the political and social events of his time provide valuable insights into the Byzantine Empire's history and culture.
These are just a few examples of the rich historical legacy associated with the name Yansel, a name that has traversed various cultures and civilizations, leaving an indelible mark on the annals of history.
People
Yansel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yansel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yansel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yansel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yansel 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 5,712,572 US residents.
Is Yansel a common name?
We classify Yansel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 61 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yansel most popular?
The single biggest year for Yansel was 2006, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yansel is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yansel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 174 people with the name Yansel, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,801 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 Yansel 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 Yansel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yansel leans strongly male. 158 people counted with this name were male (91.9%), compared with 14 female bearers (8.1%). 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 Yansel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yansel is Hispanic at 95.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Black (1.1%). 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 Yansel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yansel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.4% (166 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 Yansel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yansel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yansel 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 Yansel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yansel 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 Yansel 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 have the name Yansel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.