Ardel
Ardel was last recorded in 1963, when 5 babies were given it; 128 Americans have been recorded with it between 1917 and 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ardel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ardel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,644, in 1963; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
11 babies in 1917, the peak
Ardel peaked in 1917, when 11 babies were given it (6 girls, #4,113 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 5 | #6,644 | under 5 | |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,419 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 7 | #4,935 | under 5 | |
| 1954 | 5 | #5,783 | under 5 | |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,446 | 5 | #3,734 |
| 1946 | under 5 | 5 | #3,546 | |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,222 | under 5 | |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,756 | under 5 | |
| 1941 | 5 | #4,442 | under 5 | |
| 1939 | under 5 | 6 | #3,126 |
Every recorded year (19)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | 9 | #2,952 | under 5 | |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,449 | under 5 | |
| 1931 | under 5 | 5 | #3,787 | |
| 1926 | 7 | #3,890 | under 5 | |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,994 | under 5 | |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,426 | 5 | #4,317 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,859 | under 5 | |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,892 | under 5 | |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,113 | 5 | #4,009 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Ardel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 128 Americans recorded as Ardel, 76% are girls and 24% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ardel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ardel, and how old are they?
An estimated 41 Americans named Ardel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 242 people named Ardel (123 women and girls, 119 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 53 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Ardel rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 Ardel?
Ardel is a less common spelling of Ardell: SSA has recorded 128 Ardel and 5,070 Ardell since 1880.
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 5,198 babies since 1880, Ardel is the second most given (2.5% of them).
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 Ardel
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 Ardel and names like it
- Compare Ardel and ArdellBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sArdel peaked in 1917.
- The top names of 1917The year the most babies were named Ardel.
- Names starting with AMost given first.