Noel
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Noel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country. In Nicaragua it is the 29th most common given name. In English, recorded as medieval nickname for someone with a connection with Christmas.
- NINicaragua≈1 in 479(inferred from the name graph)
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 583
- FRFrance≈1 in 4.3K
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)
- Sources
- 385 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 479 (inferred from the name graph)
≈190,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Nicaragua, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
medieval nickname for someone with a connection with Christmas
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
How Noel is read(measured from records)
Noel is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.
- English52%
medieval nickname for someone with a connection with Christmas
as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
from OFr noël ‘Christmas’, a name for one born at that festival; first attested Noel 1130 P (London)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
some particular connection with the Christmas season, such as owing the particular feudal duty of providing a yule-log to the lord of the manor, or having given a memor¬ able performance as the Lord of Misrule; see also Yule.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
- Spanish24%
French form of Natal, from Old French noël < Latin natalis "Christmas/day of birth".
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
- French7.8%
Origine hébraïque, signifie « Dieu avec nous ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Noel 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 | #335 | ≈190,000 est. | ≈1 in 583 | — | Noel | 117 |
| US United States | — | 61,698 | 1 in 5.4K | 49K | Noel | 385 |
| HU Hungary | — | 16,169 | 1 in 604 | 16K | — | — |
| FR France | #401 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.3K | 52K | Noel | 342 |
| BR Brazil | #853 | 15,301 | 1 in 14K | 19K | Noel | 110 |
| NI Nicaragua | #29 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 479 | — | Noel | 60 |
| FI Finland | — | 5,184 | 1 in 1.1K | 5.5K | — | 12 |
| AL Albania | — | 3,269 | 1 in 941 | 3.2K | — | 1 |
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: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts). 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)
Noel is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Irish, French for ‘Christmas’; Irish Nollaig translates it exactly. Popular in Ireland in the mid-20th century, now declining.
as a nameIrish first names
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)
- Joseph Needhamb. 1900GBnot in their usual nameBritish biochemist, historian and sinologist (1900–1995)
- Noel Langleyb. 1911ZASouth African writer (1911-1980)
- Keith Emersonb. 1944GBnot in their usual nameBritish recording artist; keyboard player and composer (1944–2016)
- Tim Bentinckb. 1953AUnot in their usual nameEnglish actor and writer
- Richard Marxb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and songwriter
- Noel Gugliemib. 1970USAmerican actor
- Noel Clarkeb. 1975GBBritish actor and filmmaker
- Noel Valladaresb. 1977HNHonduran footballer
- Kim Kardashianb. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican media personality, businesswoman, model and actress (born 1980)
- Noel Fisherb. 1984CACanadian actor
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 144 sources across 70 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 49K | #795 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 19K | #1,432 |
| HU Hungary | Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025) | 2025 | 16K | #60 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 15K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 15K | #1,276 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 13K | #795 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 5.5K | #290 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 5.2K | — |
| AL Albania | INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts) | — | 3.2K | #88 |
| HU Hungary | KSH — births by given name | 2024 | 862 | — |
| HU Hungary | Nyilvántartó — Top-100 newborn names (2020–2024) | 2024 | 862 | #8 |
| HU Hungary | magyarnevek.hu — Top-100 newborn given names 2025 (M+F) | 2025 | 813 | #5 |
Reference works 9
- 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
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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
- What does the name Noel mean, and where does it come from?
- medieval nickname for someone with a connection with Christmas Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Noel a male or female name?
- Noel 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.
- In which country does Noel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 187 thousand people named Noel in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled noel.
- How common is the name Noel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 61,698 people named Noel in 2020, about 1 in 5.4 thousand residents.
- How common is Noel compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Noel is the 335th most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.
- What are other forms of the name Noel?
- In the etymology graph, Natalie, Noeleen and Noele are forms of the same name in other languages.
What do you want to know about Noel?
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/noelThe 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, “Noel” — the 335th most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.