Humanverse

Arnell

About 2,080 American babies have been named Arnell since 1910, most of them around 1961. It is given to both boys and girls. It has not appeared in the national data since 2022. About 1,400 Arnells are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 52.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Arnell boys named Arnell

Girls and boys called Arnell

Share of the name given to girls, 1880 to 2025 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years more girls than boys years more boys than girls

Arnell crossed from girls to boys in 1957, and has stayed there for 6 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 85% boys, and in 1995 it was 38%.

The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 30 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.

By the numbers

Total US births
2,080
Estimated living today
1,400
Median age today
52
Peak year
1961
Best rank
1,521st
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1910
Girls / boys
798 / 1,282

How old the living Arnells are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 2,080 babies given the name since 1910, about 1,400 are alive — 65 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1973 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where Arnell is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Arnell is most concentrated in Illinois (6.5×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1961

The most popular boys’ names the year Arnell peaked:

All the names of 1961

Related names

Arnell against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Arnell with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.