Yechiel
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will live".
Name Census estimates that about 1,853 living Americans carry the first name Yechiel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yechiel today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yechiel births was 2024 (79 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yechiel. 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 Yechiel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 184,973 Americans
Peak year
2024
79 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,981
Tracked since 1959
Census
Yechiel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,387 people with the first name Yechiel, which placed it at #9,847 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
#9,847
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,387 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
97.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yechiel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yechiel is White at 97.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.2%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Yechiel 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 Yechiel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White97.8% · 1,356
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 16
- Black or African American0.4% · 6
- Two or more races0.4% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Yechiel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yechiel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 619 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yechiel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yechiel 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 Yechiel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yechiels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yechiel
Yechiel is a Hebrew name that can be traced back to ancient times. Its origins are from the biblical Hebrew name Yechiel, which means "God lives" or "May God live". The name is derived from the Hebrew words "Yah" (a shortened version of the name of God) and "chayah" (to live).
One of the earliest references to the name Yechiel can be found in the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a Levite in 1 Chronicles 15:18. This suggests that the name was in use among the ancient Israelites during the time of the biblical narratives.
During the Middle Ages, the name Yechiel was relatively common among Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East. One notable figure from this period was Yechiel ben Yosef, a respected rabbi and scholar who lived in Italy in the 13th century.
In the 16th century, Yechiel Luria, a prominent Jewish mystic and kabbalist, was born in Jerusalem (1534-1572). He was known for his contributions to the study of Kabbalah and his influential works, such as "The Tree of Life".
Another notable individual bearing the name Yechiel was Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829-1908), a Lithuanian rabbi and author who wrote extensively on Jewish law and philosophy. His works, including the "Aruch HaShulchan", were highly influential in the Jewish world.
In the 20th century, Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (1884-1966) was a renowned rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean of a Talmudic academy) in Switzerland and Israel. He was widely respected for his expertise in Jewish law and his leadership in the Orthodox Jewish community.
While the name Yechiel has its roots in ancient Hebrew, it has continued to be used by Jewish families around the world, particularly in Israel and among Orthodox Jewish communities. The name carries a rich historical and cultural significance, reflecting the enduring traditions and values of the Jewish people.
People
Yechiel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yechiel 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
Yechiel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yechiel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,853 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yechiel 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 184,973 US residents.
Is Yechiel a common name?
We classify Yechiel as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,887 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yechiel most popular?
The single biggest year for Yechiel was 2024, when 79 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yechiel is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yechiel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,387 people with the name Yechiel, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,847 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 Yechiel 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 Yechiel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yechiel appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,384 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Yechiel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yechiel is White at 97.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.2%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Yechiel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yechiel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.8% (1,356 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 Yechiel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yechiel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yechiel 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 Yechiel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yechiel 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 Yechiel 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 Yechiel?
See how many people have the name Yechiel on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.