Lyonel
Lyonel was given to 5 boys in 2025, #13,171 among boys’ names; 257 Americans have been recorded with it since 1925 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lyonel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Lyonel?
#13,171 among boys’ names, 2025
Lyonel fell from #7,353 in 2015 to #13,171 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 5.7 to 2.9 per million.
11 babies in 2012, the peak
Lyonel peaked in 2012, when 11 boys were given it, #7,353 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #13,171 | 2.9 |
| 2024 | 6 | #11,819 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 10 | #8,041 | 5.8 |
| 2022 | 6 | #11,745 | 3.4 |
| 2021 | 8 | #9,356 | 4.6 |
| 2020 | 6 | #11,446 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,615 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 9 | #8,570 | 5.0 |
| 2017 | 7 | #10,362 | 3.8 |
| 2016 | 5 | #13,439 | 2.6 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #7,353 | 5.7 |
| 2014 | 8 | #9,296 | 4.2 |
| 2013 | 5 | #13,306 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,353 | 5.8 |
| 2011 | 6 | #11,725 | 3.2 |
| 2009 | 8 | #9,540 | 4.0 |
| 2008 | 7 | #10,593 | 3.4 |
| 2004 | 7 | #9,559 | 3.5 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,450 | 3.6 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,727 | 2.9 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,924 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,676 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 9 | #4,695 | 4.9 |
| 1985 | 7 | #5,516 | 3.8 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,811 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,747 | 4.5 |
| 1982 | 8 | #4,849 | 4.4 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,366 | 5.0 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,667 | 2.9 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,508 | 3.7 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,336 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,459 | 3.1 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,223 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,511 | 2.9 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,432 | 2.4 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,866 | 4.8 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,012 | 5.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Lyonel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lyonel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 37 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Lyonel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lyonel, and how old are they?
An estimated 236 Americans named Lyonel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (92% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 42. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 490 people named Lyonel (0 women and girls, 490 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 201 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 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).
How common is the spelling Lyonel?
Lyonel is a less common spelling of Lionel: SSA has recorded 257 Lyonel and 33,833 Lionel since 1880.
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 35,803 babies since 1880, Lyonel is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 431 babies (1.2%), again the third most given.
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.
More about Lyonel and names like it
- Compare Lyonel and LionelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLyonel peaked in 2012.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Lyonel.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Lyonel alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.