Joel
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Joel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country, where it is the 12th most common given name. Recorded meaning: (i) from the Hebrew male personal name Yoel; (ii) a different form of Jewell.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 288(inferred from the name graph)
- DODominican Republic≈1 in 455
- SESweden1 in 463
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Philippines (inferred from the name graph)
- #244 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 600 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 288 (inferred from the name graph)
≈380,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
(i) from the Hebrew male personal name Yoel; (ii) a different form of Jewell.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Joel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PH Philippines | #12 | ≈380,000 est. | ≈1 in 288 | — | Joel | 173 |
| US United States | #212 | 256,017 | 1 in 1.3K | 254K | Joel | 600 |
| NG Nigeria | #233 | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Joel | 109 |
| BR Brazil | #167 | 129,772 | 1 in 1.6K | 144K | Joel | 189 |
| KE Kenya | #93 | ≈72,000 est. | ≈1 in 741 | — | Joel | 79 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 30,633 | 1 in 552 | 31K | Joel | 66 |
| DO Dominican Republic | #17 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 455 | — | Joel | 89 |
| SE Sweden | #179 | 22,041 | 1 in 463 | 22K | Joel | 124 |
| FI Finland | #840 | 11,721 | 1 in 475 | 14K | Joel | 73 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); INEC — civil registry names; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Joel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Joel is a classic biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is the Lord." It has a strong, timeless appeal and has been in use for centuries. While associated with the well-known prophet Joel, the name was also held by other biblical figures, including a tribal leader who served King David, giving it a sense of quiet strength and leadership.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Joel is a classic biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is God." It has a strong, timeless appeal and is associated with faith and spiritual commitment. The biblical Joel was a Levite who helped restore the temple, giving the name connotations of service and righteousness.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Joel is a classic biblical name of Hebrew origin that means 'Yahweh is God'. While the most famous Joel in the Bible is the prophet, the name is associated with strength, faith, and leadership. It has been a consistently popular name in many Western countries for centuries.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Joel means "Yahweh is God," reflecting a common theological statement in ancient Israel that professes faith in the singular deity of Yahweh. The name itself is a testament to the monotheistic faith that was central to the identity and worship of the Israelites.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Joel (Hebrew: יוֹאֵל, Yôʾēl) is a compound of two Hebrew elements: 'Yo' (יוֹ), a common abbreviation for the divine name Yahweh, and 'El' (אֵל), the generic word for 'god' or specifically 'God'. The combined meaning is 'Yahweh is God'.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Zero Mostelb. 1915USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (1915-1977)
- Joel Schumacherb. 1939USAmerican director, screenwriter, and producer (1939–2020)
- Joel Mokyrb. 1946ILAmerican-Israeli economic historian
- Joel Coenb. 1954USAmerican film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor (born 1954)
- Joel Murrayb. 1963USAmerican actor
- Joel McHaleb. 1971ITAmerican actor and comedian
- Joel Kinnamanb. 1979SESwedish-American actor
- Joel Fryb. 1985GBEnglish actor and musician
- Jason Derulob. 1989USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer-songwriter
- Joel Embiidb. 1994CMCameroonian and French basketball player
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 134 sources across 72 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 254K | #211 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 144K | #339 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 130K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 129K | #252 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — civil registry names | 2024 | 31K | #76 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 22K | #195 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 15K | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 14K | #151 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 12K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 1.6K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.6K | #211 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 1.4K | — |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Joel a male or female name?
- Joel is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Joel mean, and where does it come from?
- (i) from the Hebrew male personal name Yoel; (ii) a different form of Jewell. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- In which country does Joel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 379 thousand people named Joel in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled joel.
- What are other forms of the name Joel?
- In the etymology graph, Yoel, Gioele and Joele are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Joel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 256,017 people named Joel in 2020, about 1 in 1.3 thousand residents.
- How common is Joel compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Joel is the 12th most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Joel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/joelThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Joel” — the 12th most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.