Bel

Locally spelled Bell in US United States, ES Spain, SK Slovakia and B'El in TN Tunisia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Bel is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• French (Seychelles)36%

  form of beau used before a masculine noun that starts with a vowel sound

  as a word·recorded as French·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  Voir Décibel.

  as a name·recorded as French·2500 noms propres devenus communs : dictionnaire étymologique (éponymes, antonomases et hypallages)

• English14%

  Biblical name

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Bel, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Izzy
• Amy
• Isabelle
• Isa
• Ana

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Bel is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English surname31 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada

  Languages: English, Dutch, German

  Also written Bèl, Bël, Bél, Bêl, Bęl

• Hindi given name25 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Bangladesh

  Languages: Hindi, Bangla

  Also written Belu, বেলু, Bell, বেল, Bèl

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Běl

• Indonesian name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia

  Also written Bèl, Bél, Bël, Bēl

• Chinese name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Taiwan

  Also written Bél, B'El

61 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Bel is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Russian, "white."

  as a word·A Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)

• In Turkmen, archaic and dialectal form of pil (“shovel, spade”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In mdh, smoke

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Jean-Pierre Belb. 1951FRFrench politician
• Jérôme Belb. 1964FRFrench dancer and choreographer
• Frédérique Belb. 1975FRFrench actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

54 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 27 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Bel mean, and where does it come from?

form of beau used before a masculine noun that starts with a vowel sound Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

Which countries have the most people with the surname Bel?

In the United States, the national register counted about 221 thousand people named Bell, more than in any other country we hold. After it come Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and France; the country table on this page ranks them.

How common is the name Bel?

In Spain, the national register counted 2,540 people named Bel, about 1 in 20 thousand residents.

How common is Bel compared with other names?

In Slovakia, Bel is the 57th most common surname of 69,668 surnames recorded there.