Orell
Orell was last recorded in 1979, when 5 babies were given it; 202 Americans have been recorded with it between 1914 and 1979 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Orell by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Orell?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #6,767, in 1979; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
16 babies in 1921, the peak
Orell peaked in 1921, when 16 babies were given it (9 boys, #3,155 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | under 5 | 5 | #6,767 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 5 | #4,390 | |
| 1951 | under 5 | 8 | #3,004 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 7 | #3,231 | |
| 1945 | under 5 | 7 | #2,924 | |
| 1943 | under 5 | 6 | #3,462 | |
| 1942 | under 5 | 5 | #3,927 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 6 | #3,422 | |
| 1936 | under 5 | 8 | #2,791 | |
| 1934 | under 5 | 7 | #3,202 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | under 5 | 6 | #3,659 | |
| 1930 | under 5 | 8 | #3,218 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 6 | #3,843 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 7 | #3,613 | |
| 1927 | 5 | #5,409 | 7 | #3,694 |
| 1926 | under 5 | 6 | #4,061 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 6 | #4,073 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 5 | #4,792 | |
| 1923 | 7 | #4,275 | 5 | #4,721 |
| 1922 | under 5 | 6 | #4,189 | |
| 1921 | 7 | #4,349 | 9 | #3,155 |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,792 | |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,151 | under 5 | |
| 1918 | 7 | #4,179 | 5 | #4,633 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,464 | 8 | #3,135 |
| 1915 | under 5 | 5 | #4,238 | |
| 1914 | 5 | #4,060 | under 5 |
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 Orell a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 202 Americans recorded as Orell, 22% are girls and 78% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Orell: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Orell, and how old are they?
An estimated 28 Americans named Orell 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 146 people named Orell (29 women and girls, 117 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 43 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.4 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 4,661 babies since 1880, Orell is the fourth most given (4.3% of them). In 2025 none of their 30 babies recorded by SSA was a Orell (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Orell
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 Orell and names like it
- Compare Orell and OralBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sOrell peaked in 1921.
- The top names of 1921The year the most babies were named Orell.
- Names starting with OMost given first.