Yeriel
A Hebrew masculine name derived from "Ari El" meaning "lion of God".
Name Census estimates that about 380 living Americans carry the first name Yeriel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yeriel today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yeriel births was 2010 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yeriel. 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.
People living today
380
~ 1 in 901,985 Americans
Peak year
2010
27 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,211
Tracked since 1989
Census
Yeriel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 462 people with the first name Yeriel, which placed it at #21,817 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
#21,817
National first-name rank
People counted
462
462 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
91.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yeriel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yeriel is Hispanic at 91.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%) and White (2.2%). 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 Yeriel 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 Yeriel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino91.6% · 423
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 18
- White2.2% · 10
- Black or African American1.7% · 8
- Two or more races0.6% · 3
Popularity
Yeriel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yeriel from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 185 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yeriel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yeriel 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 Yeriel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yeriels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yeriel
The name Yeriel is of Hebrew origin and is believed to date back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "yor" meaning "light" and "el" meaning "God". The name can be translated to mean "light of God" or "God's light".
Yeriel is not a common name found in the Bible or other ancient religious texts. However, some scholars suggest that it may have been used as a variation or derivative of other Hebrew names such as Uriel or Yiriel.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Yeriel are from the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, a Jewish scholar and philosopher named Yeriel ben Shlomo lived in Spain. He is known for his work on Jewish philosophy and his commentaries on the Bible.
Another notable figure named Yeriel was a 16th-century Jewish mystic and Kabbalist from Safed, Palestine. His full name was Yeriel ben Avraham, and he was a student of the famous Kabbalist Isaac Luria.
In the 18th century, there was a Yeriel ben Moshe, a Jewish scholar and author from Poland. He wrote several books on Jewish law and customs.
In more recent times, Yeriel Armando Rendón was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as a member of the Colombian Senate from 1998 to 2006.
Another notable figure named Yeriel was Yeriel Zamir, an Israeli writer and journalist born in 1958. He is known for his books on Israeli culture and society.
While not a common name, Yeriel has been used throughout history in various Jewish communities, particularly among Sephardic Jews. Its meaning and connection to the concepts of light and God have made it a name with spiritual and religious significance.
People
Yeriel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yeriel 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
Yeriel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yeriel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yeriel 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 901,985 US residents.
Is Yeriel a common name?
We classify Yeriel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 384 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yeriel most popular?
The single biggest year for Yeriel was 2010, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yeriel 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 Yeriel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 462 people with the name Yeriel, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,817 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 Yeriel 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 Yeriel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yeriel leans strongly male. 431 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 23 female bearers (5.1%). 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 Yeriel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yeriel is Hispanic at 91.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%) and White (2.2%). 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 Yeriel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yeriel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.6% (423 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 Yeriel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yeriel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yeriel 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 Yeriel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yeriel 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 Yeriel 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 Yeriel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.