Yael
Yael is given to both girls and boys: 127 girls and 304 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,642 among girls’ names and #818 among boys’, #1,308 among all names counting both); 9,708 Americans have been recorded with it since 1954 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Yael every year since 2003.
An estimated 9,570 Americans named Yael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yael mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yael is “a female given name from Hebrew.”
Rendering of the modern Israeli Hebrew יעל.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yael?
#818 among boys’ names, 2025
Yael rose from #1,095 in 2015 to #818 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.09 to 0.18 per 1,000.
472 babies in 2023, the peak
Yael peaked in 2023, when 472 babies were given it (329 boys, #776 among boys’ names). The 431 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 91% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 127 | #1,642 | 304 | #818 |
| 2024 | 132 | #1,597 | 320 | #789 |
| 2023 | 143 | #1,512 | 329 | #776 |
| 2022 | 166 | #1,386 | 225 | #994 |
| 2021 | 137 | #1,543 | 211 | #1,033 |
| 2020 | 137 | #1,551 | 206 | #1,012 |
| 2019 | 116 | #1,771 | 222 | #967 |
| 2018 | 106 | #1,898 | 225 | #935 |
| 2017 | 119 | #1,767 | 197 | #1,024 |
| 2016 | 126 | #1,703 | 182 | #1,086 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 108 | #1,893 | 178 | #1,095 |
| 2014 | 111 | #1,837 | 235 | #914 |
| 2013 | 101 | #1,966 | 243 | #871 |
| 2012 | 108 | #1,873 | 238 | #883 |
| 2011 | 107 | #1,885 | 179 | #1,055 |
| 2010 | 115 | #1,793 | 219 | #924 |
| 2009 | 107 | #1,955 | 223 | #929 |
| 2008 | 94 | #2,156 | 226 | #913 |
| 2007 | 86 | #2,275 | 212 | #939 |
| 2006 | 89 | #2,183 | 180 | #1,024 |
| 2005 | 75 | #2,374 | 159 | #1,046 |
| 2004 | 92 | #2,017 | 139 | #1,140 |
| 2003 | 80 | #2,183 | 111 | #1,280 |
| 2002 | 85 | #2,042 | 64 | #1,813 |
| 2001 | 89 | #1,952 | 32 | #2,922 |
| 2000 | 87 | #1,946 | 28 | #3,141 |
| 1999 | 69 | #2,200 | 28 | #3,024 |
| 1998 | 67 | #2,159 | 25 | #3,184 |
| 1997 | 62 | #2,223 | 15 | #4,442 |
| 1996 | 71 | #1,991 | 13 | #4,863 |
| 1995 | 48 | #2,617 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 45 | #2,746 | 11 | #5,435 |
| 1993 | 58 | #2,261 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 62 | #2,184 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 67 | #2,050 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 56 | #2,283 | 7 | #7,157 |
| 1989 | 52 | #2,297 | 7 | #6,911 |
| 1988 | 57 | #2,065 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 52 | #2,125 | 9 | #4,945 |
| 1986 | 61 | #1,863 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 41 | #2,436 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 57 | #1,885 | 5 | #7,320 |
| 1983 | 56 | #1,885 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 57 | #1,898 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 44 | #2,304 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 45 | #2,245 | under 5 | |
| 1979 | 38 | #2,475 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 51 | #1,937 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 55 | #1,856 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 42 | #2,098 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 34 | #2,410 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 33 | #2,395 | under 5 | |
| 1973 | 27 | #2,687 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 30 | #2,450 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | 27 | #2,735 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 22 | #3,109 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | 29 | #2,452 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 41 | #1,886 | under 5 | |
| 1967 | 20 | #2,865 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,266 | under 5 | |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,490 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,351 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | 10 | #4,532 | under 5 | |
| 1962 | 11 | #4,257 | under 5 | |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,299 | under 5 | |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,376 | under 5 | |
| 1959 | 8 | #5,027 | under 5 | |
| 1958 | 5 | #7,017 | under 5 | |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,611 | 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 Yael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,708 Americans recorded as Yael, 46% are girls and 54% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Yael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yael, and how old are they?
9,570 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 9,708 Americans ever recorded as Yael. The median Yael alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 7,524 people named Yael (4,367 women and girls, 3,157 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,259 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 54 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 479 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 909 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,450 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,670 |
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 Yael born?
The states with the most babies named Yael are Texas, New York and California, with 49% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 58 | #610 | 1.0× |
| New York | 56 | #744 | 2.9× |
| California | 55 | #718 | 1.4× |
| New Jersey | 29 | #541 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 23 | #1,252 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 19 | #537 | 0.5× |
| Arizona | 18 | #431 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 14 | #698 | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 13 | #408 | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 12 | #747 | 0.9× |
Where Yael is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yael is most over-represented in New York: since 1954 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 Yael 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 23,360 babies since 1880, Yael is the most given (42% of them). In 2025 it was given to 431 of their 868 babies (50%), again the 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 Yael
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 Yael and names like it
- Compare Yael and JaelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYael peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yael since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Yael: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Yael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.