Lyell
Lyell was last recorded in 1991, when 5 babies were given it; 140 Americans have been recorded with it between 1913 and 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lyell by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Lyell?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,067, in 1991; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
12 babies in 1920, the peak
Lyell peaked in 1920, when 12 boys were given it, #2,542 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 5 | #9,067 | 2.5 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,510 | 2.9 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,543 | 3.4 |
| 1945 | 5 | #3,593 | 3.7 |
| 1944 | 5 | #3,728 | 3.7 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,532 | 5.8 |
| 1933 | 5 | #3,959 | 5.0 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,287 | 6.7 |
| 1930 | 9 | #2,919 | 8.2 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,024 | 5.3 |
Every recorded year (21)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1926 | 9 | #3,045 | 8.1 |
| 1925 | 7 | #3,604 | 6.3 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,159 | 5.3 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,344 | 7.3 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,129 | 8.2 |
| 1920 | 12 | #2,542 | 11.3 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,550 | 4.9 |
| 1917 | 6 | #3,812 | 6.5 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,079 | 9.0 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,561 | 7.6 |
| 1913 | 6 | #2,674 | 11.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Lyell a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lyell has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 21 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Lyell: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lyell, and how old are they?
An estimated 19 Americans named Lyell 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 185 people named Lyell (26 women and girls, 159 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 26 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7.1 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 576 babies since 1880, Lyell is the third most given (24% 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 Lyell
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 Lyell and names like it
- Compare Lyell and LyallBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sLyell peaked in 1920.
- The top names of 1920The year the most babies were named Lyell.
- Names starting with LMost given first.