Ancel
Ancel was last recorded in 2019, when 10 babies were given it; 751 Americans have been recorded with it between 1883 and 2019 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ancel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ancel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #7,674, in 2019; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
25 babies in 1919, the peak
Ancel peaked in 1919, when 25 boys were given it, #1,451 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 10 | #7,674 | 5.6 |
| 2018 | 5 | #12,267 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 5 | #12,364 | 2.7 |
| 2016 | 6 | #10,831 | 3.2 |
| 2014 | 6 | #10,783 | 3.1 |
| 2012 | 7 | #9,761 | 3.7 |
| 2011 | 8 | #8,798 | 4.2 |
| 2010 | 8 | #8,839 | 4.2 |
| 2008 | 6 | #11,115 | 2.9 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,208 | 4.3 |
Every recorded year (72)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 6 | #9,144 | 3.1 |
| 1998 | 5 | #9,686 | 2.6 |
| 1992 | 5 | #8,485 | 2.5 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,505 | 3.3 |
| 1976 | 6 | #4,957 | 3.8 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,009 | 3.1 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,686 | 3.5 |
| 1966 | 9 | #2,789 | 5.0 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,062 | 2.4 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,657 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,086 | 3.8 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,569 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,007 | 2.3 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,546 | 2.8 |
| 1954 | 7 | #3,183 | 3.4 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,151 | 3.5 |
| 1951 | 6 | #3,371 | 3.2 |
| 1950 | 11 | #2,325 | 6.1 |
| 1949 | 9 | #2,610 | 5.1 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,694 | 2.8 |
| 1947 | 12 | #2,253 | 6.6 |
| 1946 | 10 | #2,405 | 6.2 |
| 1944 | 13 | #1,989 | 9.5 |
| 1943 | 7 | #2,969 | 4.9 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,147 | 8.7 |
| 1941 | 16 | #1,761 | 13.0 |
| 1940 | 13 | #1,986 | 11.2 |
| 1939 | 7 | #2,840 | 6.3 |
| 1938 | 11 | #2,186 | 9.9 |
| 1937 | 10 | #2,337 | 9.4 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,455 | 8.7 |
| 1935 | 15 | #1,840 | 14.4 |
| 1934 | 9 | #2,569 | 8.7 |
| 1933 | 12 | #2,096 | 12.1 |
| 1932 | 14 | #1,999 | 13.4 |
| 1931 | 20 | #1,590 | 19.2 |
| 1930 | 12 | #2,299 | 10.9 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,207 | 12.1 |
| 1928 | 19 | #1,763 | 17.2 |
| 1927 | 15 | #2,122 | 13.3 |
| 1926 | 13 | #2,306 | 11.7 |
| 1925 | 20 | #1,746 | 17.9 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,234 | 12.4 |
| 1923 | 21 | #1,696 | 19.2 |
| 1922 | 21 | #1,697 | 19.3 |
| 1921 | 14 | #2,268 | 12.7 |
| 1920 | 17 | #1,968 | 16.0 |
| 1919 | 25 | #1,451 | 25.5 |
| 1918 | 22 | #1,599 | 21.7 |
| 1917 | 22 | #1,530 | 23.8 |
| 1916 | 16 | #1,855 | 18.0 |
| 1915 | 22 | #1,458 | 25.9 |
| 1914 | 22 | #1,263 | 33.6 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,097 | 15.6 |
| 1912 | 8 | #1,894 | 18.6 |
| 1907 | 5 | #1,353 | 34.1 |
| 1905 | 6 | #1,092 | 45.3 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,066 | 46.8 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,065 | 44.3 |
| 1885 | 5 | #942 | 46.4 |
| 1884 | 6 | #854 | 52.4 |
| 1883 | 5 | #898 | 47.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ancel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ancel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 72 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ancel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ancel, and how old are they?
An estimated 212 Americans named Ancel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (28% of everyone recorded); the median is 60 years old and half are between 16 and 77. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 388 people named Ancel (18 women and girls, 370 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 259 born in the U.S. The Census count is 50% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Ancel?
Ancel is a less common spelling of Ansel: SSA has recorded 751 Ancel and 4,811 Ansel since 1880.
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 6,661 babies since 1880, Ancel is the third most given (11% of them). In 2025 none of their 186 babies recorded by SSA was a Ancel (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ancel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ancel and names like it
- Compare Ancel and AnselBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sAncel peaked in 1919.
- Kentucky’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ancel since 1910.
- The top names of 1919The year the most babies were named Ancel.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Ancel alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with AMost given first.