Markel
Markel was given to 39 boys in 2025, #3,110 among boys’ names; 4,829 Americans have been recorded with it since 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,680 Americans named Markel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 15 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Markel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Markel?
#3,110 among boys’ names, 2025
Markel fell from #1,511 in 2015 to #3,110 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 57.4 to 22.8 per million.
183 babies in 1999, the peak
Markel peaked in 1999, when 183 babies were given it (172 boys, #881 among boys’ names). The 39 births of 2025 are 21% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 39 | #3,110 | 22.8 |
| 2024 | 49 | #2,698 | 28.4 |
| 2023 | 63 | #2,261 | 36.8 |
| 2022 | 62 | #2,309 | 35.5 |
| 2021 | 73 | #2,031 | 41.7 |
| 2020 | 81 | #1,841 | 46.9 |
| 2019 | 86 | #1,800 | 47.9 |
| 2018 | 85 | #1,803 | 46.8 |
| 2017 | 81 | #1,839 | 43.8 |
| 2016 | 92 | #1,704 | 48.5 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 110 | #1,511 | 57.4 |
| 2014 | 95 | #1,637 | 49.5 |
| 2013 | 110 | #1,489 | 58.2 |
| 2012 | 107 | #1,510 | 56.4 |
| 2011 | 123 | #1,369 | 64.8 |
| 2010 | 126 | #1,355 | 65.7 |
| 2009 | 144 | #1,247 | 72.6 |
| 2008 | 147 | #1,201 | 72.1 |
| 2007 | 139 | #1,267 | 67.0 |
| 2006 | 138 | #1,221 | 67.1 |
| 2005 | 169 | #1,005 | 84.6 |
| 2004 | 149 | #1,073 | 75.1 |
| 2003 | 136 | #1,122 | 68.8 |
| 2002 | 118 | #1,187 | 60.8 |
| 2001 | 164 | #945 | 84.4 |
| 2000 | 143 | #1,021 | 72.8 |
| 1999 | 172 | #881 | 89.6 |
| 1998 | 161 | #898 | 84.2 |
| 1997 | 156 | #888 | 82.8 |
| 1996 | 139 | #938 | 73.4 |
| 1995 | 167 | #829 | 87.7 |
| 1994 | 162 | #839 | 83.8 |
| 1993 | 83 | #1,246 | 42.3 |
| 1992 | 65 | #1,420 | 32.5 |
| 1991 | 79 | #1,253 | 39.1 |
| 1990 | 75 | #1,276 | 36.5 |
| 1989 | 54 | #1,524 | 27.0 |
| 1988 | 28 | #2,225 | 14.6 |
| 1987 | 38 | #1,743 | 20.4 |
| 1986 | 29 | #2,035 | 15.7 |
| 1985 | 42 | #1,560 | 22.7 |
| 1984 | 29 | #1,919 | 16.1 |
| 1983 | 22 | #2,316 | 12.3 |
| 1982 | 34 | #1,722 | 18.7 |
| 1981 | 32 | #1,793 | 17.9 |
| 1980 | 18 | #2,683 | 10.1 |
| 1979 | 13 | #3,286 | 7.6 |
| 1978 | 19 | #2,443 | 11.6 |
| 1977 | 18 | #2,523 | 11.0 |
| 1976 | 17 | #2,567 | 10.8 |
| 1975 | 11 | #3,357 | 7.0 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,476 | 6.4 |
| 1973 | 11 | #3,148 | 7.1 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,273 | 4.3 |
| 1971 | 15 | #2,513 | 8.5 |
| 1970 | 11 | #3,001 | 5.9 |
| 1969 | 13 | #2,503 | 7.3 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,562 | 4.0 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,567 | 6.2 |
| 1965 | 8 | #3,153 | 4.3 |
| 1964 | 8 | #3,185 | 4.0 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,885 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 11 | #2,612 | 5.3 |
| 1961 | 15 | #2,204 | 7.1 |
| 1960 | 10 | #2,796 | 4.7 |
| 1959 | 10 | #2,760 | 4.7 |
| 1957 | 8 | #3,168 | 3.7 |
| 1956 | 11 | #2,585 | 5.2 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,387 | 3.4 |
| 1954 | 11 | #2,549 | 5.4 |
| 1953 | 6 | #3,656 | 3.0 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,057 | 2.7 |
| 1950 | 5 | #4,005 | 2.8 |
| 1949 | 5 | #4,028 | 2.8 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,996 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Markel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,829 Americans recorded as Markel, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 39 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Markel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Markel, and how old are they?
4,680 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,829 Americans ever recorded as Markel. The median Markel alive today is 23 years old; half are between 15 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 3,447 people named Markel (174 women and girls, 3,273 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,375 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 86 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 178 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,090 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,020 |
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 Markel born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #2,464 | 0.5× |
Where Markel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Markel is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1948 it was given 2.9 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 Markel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 36,938 babies since 1880, Markel is the fourth most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 39 of their 501 babies (7.8%), again the fourth 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Markel
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 Markel and names like it
- Compare Markel and MarcelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMarkel peaked in 1999.
- Georgia’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Markel since 1910.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Markel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Markel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.