Yariel
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "light of God" or "revelation of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,945 living Americans carry the first name Yariel. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Yariel today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yariel births was 2010 (131 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yariel. 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
- • Yariel is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 176,223 Americans
Peak year
2010
131 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,990
Tracked since 1991
Census
Yariel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,869 people with the first name Yariel, which placed it at #7,915 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
#7,915
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,869 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yariel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yariel is Hispanic at 96.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Black (1.2%). 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 Yariel 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 Yariel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.1% · 1,797
- White2.2% · 41
- Black or African American1.2% · 22
- Two or more races0.3% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Yariel
Out of the 1,962 babies given the name Yariel since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Yariel as a male name
- Ranked #1,990 in 2024
- 78 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (126 births)
Yariel as a female name
- Ranked #19,723 in 2010
- 5 female births in 2010
- Peak: 2009 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yariel leans strongly male. 1,814 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 61 female bearers (3.3%).
Popularity
Yariel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yariel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,047 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yariel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yariel 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 Yariel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yariels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, Florida, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Yariel, while Maryland, Georgia, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 85 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yariel
The name Yariel is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Uriel, which means "God is my light" or "fire of God." It is believed to have originated in ancient Israelite culture, dating back to biblical times.
Yariel is a variation of the name Uriel, which is mentioned in the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text from the third century BCE. In this text, Uriel is depicted as one of the archangels and is associated with wisdom and divine knowledge.
The earliest recorded use of the name Yariel can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it was used as a Hebrew name among Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East. During this period, the name was often given to male children as a way of honoring the biblical archangel Uriel and invoking divine protection.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Yariel was Yariel ben Shlomo, a prominent Jewish scholar who lived in Spain during the 13th century. He was renowned for his expertise in Talmudic studies and Hebrew grammar.
Another notable figure with the name Yariel was Yariel ben Yitzchak, a rabbi and Kabbalist who lived in Safed, Palestine, in the 16th century. He was known for his contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism and his teachings on the Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah.
In the 17th century, Yariel ben Avraham was a celebrated Hebrew poet and philosopher from Italy. His works explored themes of divine love and the nature of the soul, and he was widely respected for his eloquence and spiritual insights.
During the 19th century, Yariel ben Shmuel was a prominent Hasidic rabbi and leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Ukraine. He was revered for his wisdom, compassion, and devotion to his community.
More recently, Yariel Amir was an Israeli artist and sculptor who lived from 1932 to 2017. He was known for his monumental public sculptures and his unique style that combined traditional and modern elements.
While the name Yariel has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has since been adopted by various communities around the world, particularly among Jews and those with an appreciation for its spiritual and artistic significance.
People
Yariel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yariel 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
Yariel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yariel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,945 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yariel 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 176,223 US residents.
Is Yariel a common name?
We classify Yariel as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,962 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yariel most popular?
The single biggest year for Yariel was 2010, when 131 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yariel is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yariel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,869 people with the name Yariel, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,915 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 Yariel 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 Yariel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yariel leans strongly male. 1,814 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 61 female bearers (3.3%). 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 Yariel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yariel is Hispanic at 96.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Black (1.2%). 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 Yariel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yariel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.1% (1,797 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 Yariel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yariel a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Yariel 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 Yariel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yariel 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 Yariel 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 Yariel as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.