Fidel
Fidel was given to 84 boys in 2025, #1,875 among boys’ names; 11,321 Americans have been recorded with it since 1892 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,580 Americans named Fidel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (76% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 21 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Fidel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Fidel mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Fidel is “a male given name from Spanish.”
Borrowed from Spanish Fidel.
/fɪˈdɛl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Fidel?
#1,875 among boys’ names, 2025
Fidel fell from #1,649 in 2015 to #1,875 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 50.1 to 49.2 per million.
195 babies in 2001, the peak
Fidel peaked in 2001, when 195 boys were given it, #832 among boys’ names. The 84 births of 2025 are 43% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 84 | #1,875 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 82 | #1,927 | 0.05 |
| 2023 | 92 | #1,767 | 0.05 |
| 2022 | 84 | #1,875 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 64 | #2,202 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 81 | #1,837 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 104 | #1,596 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 69 | #2,070 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 87 | #1,771 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 92 | #1,700 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (127)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 96 | #1,649 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 90 | #1,695 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 97 | #1,594 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 100 | #1,583 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 122 | #1,371 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 110 | #1,485 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 137 | #1,284 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 141 | #1,234 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 176 | #1,060 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 155 | #1,122 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 179 | #973 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 165 | #999 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 168 | #966 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 179 | #901 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 195 | #832 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 178 | #884 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 162 | #914 | 0.08 |
| 1998 | 163 | #893 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 181 | #809 | 0.10 |
| 1996 | 176 | #817 | 0.09 |
| 1995 | 190 | #777 | 0.10 |
| 1994 | 180 | #786 | 0.09 |
| 1993 | 176 | #796 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 158 | #838 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 170 | #785 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 159 | #801 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 172 | #750 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 150 | #768 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 134 | #803 | 0.07 |
| 1986 | 138 | #772 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 127 | #788 | 0.07 |
| 1984 | 111 | #831 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 109 | #835 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 110 | #845 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 153 | #702 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 110 | #844 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 132 | #755 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 117 | #781 | 0.07 |
| 1977 | 109 | #817 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 111 | #788 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 112 | #783 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 77 | #928 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 95 | #812 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 80 | #895 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 103 | #792 | 0.06 |
| 1970 | 95 | #828 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 82 | #850 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 67 | #880 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 76 | #824 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 90 | #767 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 91 | #772 | 0.05 |
| 1964 | 75 | #885 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 76 | #866 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 83 | #834 | 0.04 |
| 1961 | 116 | #710 | 0.05 |
| 1960 | 109 | #737 | 0.05 |
| 1959 | 151 | #630 | 0.07 |
| 1958 | 74 | #879 | 0.03 |
| 1957 | 84 | #826 | 0.04 |
| 1956 | 77 | #855 | 0.04 |
| 1955 | 73 | #864 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 80 | #809 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 83 | #780 | 0.04 |
| 1952 | 85 | #762 | 0.04 |
| 1951 | 90 | #731 | 0.05 |
| 1950 | 76 | #784 | 0.04 |
| 1949 | 89 | #730 | 0.05 |
| 1948 | 80 | #755 | 0.05 |
| 1947 | 75 | #795 | 0.04 |
| 1946 | 75 | #769 | 0.05 |
| 1945 | 66 | #756 | 0.05 |
| 1944 | 85 | #676 | 0.06 |
| 1943 | 74 | #756 | 0.05 |
| 1942 | 71 | #764 | 0.05 |
| 1941 | 67 | #758 | 0.05 |
| 1940 | 55 | #851 | 0.05 |
| 1939 | 62 | #772 | 0.06 |
| 1938 | 64 | #765 | 0.06 |
| 1937 | 63 | #774 | 0.06 |
| 1936 | 49 | #875 | 0.05 |
| 1935 | 60 | #799 | 0.06 |
| 1934 | 65 | #766 | 0.06 |
| 1933 | 58 | #815 | 0.06 |
| 1932 | 48 | #942 | 0.05 |
| 1931 | 73 | #711 | 0.07 |
| 1930 | 80 | #696 | 0.07 |
| 1929 | 86 | #663 | 0.08 |
| 1928 | 76 | #735 | 0.07 |
| 1927 | 67 | #814 | 0.06 |
| 1926 | 65 | #821 | 0.06 |
| 1925 | 56 | #906 | 0.05 |
| 1924 | 72 | #795 | 0.06 |
| 1923 | 78 | #739 | 0.07 |
| 1922 | 69 | #812 | 0.06 |
| 1921 | 50 | #993 | 0.05 |
| 1920 | 55 | #932 | 0.05 |
| 1919 | 65 | #813 | 0.07 |
| 1918 | 45 | #1,001 | 0.04 |
| 1917 | 37 | #1,094 | 0.04 |
| 1916 | 39 | #1,033 | 0.04 |
| 1915 | 28 | #1,248 | 0.03 |
| 1914 | 27 | #1,112 | 0.04 |
| 1913 | 13 | #1,528 | 0.03 |
| 1912 | 14 | #1,296 | 0.03 |
| 1911 | 18 | #768 | 0.08 |
| 1910 | 8 | #1,243 | 0.04 |
| 1909 | 6 | #1,339 | 0.04 |
| 1908 | 6 | #1,274 | 0.04 |
| 1907 | 8 | #1,030 | 0.05 |
| 1906 | 6 | #1,169 | 0.05 |
| 1905 | 6 | #1,144 | 0.05 |
| 1902 | 5 | #1,194 | 0.04 |
| 1899 | 7 | #890 | 0.07 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,191 | 0.04 |
| 1895 | 5 | #1,139 | 0.04 |
| 1893 | 7 | #860 | 0.06 |
| 1892 | 8 | #818 | 0.07 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Fidel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Fidel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 127 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Fidel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Fidel, and how old are they?
8,580 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 76% of the 11,321 Americans ever recorded as Fidel. The median Fidel alive today is 34 years old; half are between 21 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 21,420 people named Fidel (86 women and girls, 21,334 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,559 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 233 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,100 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,370 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,470 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,110 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Fidel born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 24 | #942 | 2.9× |
| Texas | 16 | #1,266 | 4.1× |
Where Fidel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Fidel is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1910 it was given 5.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Fidel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Fidel
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 Fidel and names like it
- Compare Fidel and DemetrioBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sFidel peaked in 2001.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Fidel since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Fidel: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Fidel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Fidel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with FMost given first.