Joel

given name · Latin script

Meaning: (i) from the Hebrew male personal name Yoel; (ii) a different form of Jewell

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.

rarermore common
  • 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)

≈380,000 people, est.

#244 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
600 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 288 (inferred from the name graph)

Philippines, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

JoelLatin(measured from records)
יואלHebrew(measured from records)
요엘Hangul(measured from records)
ЖоэльCyrillic(measured from records)
ჯოელGeorgian(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

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.

Where Joel is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
PH Philippines#12≈380,000 est.≈1 in 288—Joel173
US United States#212256,0171 in 1.3K254KJoel600
NG Nigeria#233≈140,000 est.≈1 in 1.6K—Joel109
BR Brazil#167129,7721 in 1.6K144KJoel189
KE Kenya#93≈72,000 est.≈1 in 741—Joel79
EC Ecuador—30,6331 in 55231KJoel66
DO Dominican Republic#17≈23,000 est.≈1 in 455—Joel89
SE Sweden#17922,0411 in 46322KJoel124
FI Finland#84011,7211 in 47514KJoel73

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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Joel is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name11 spellings in the group

    Also written Joe-L, Joèl, Joël, Jöel, Joêl

  • Finnish given name17 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Hungary, Finland, Sweden

    Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

    Also written Joël, Jõēl, Joêl, Joèl, Jōél

  • Indonesian given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

    Also written Joël, Joèl, Joél, Jöel

  • Lao given name33 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Laos, Thailand, United States, Philippines

    Languages: Lao, Thai

    Also written Billy, Yoel, โจเอล, โยเอล, Joël

  • French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

    Also written Joël

  • a separate given name10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, India, United Kingdom

    Also written Joël, J̶o̶e̶l̶, J͙̭̝͈̘̥o͙̲̞̹ḙ̳͓̩͍͜l̴͖̘̰̹̹, Ĵoel, Joe̶l̶

  • Greek given name8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Spain

    Also written Joël, Jöel, Ιωήλ, Joèl, Ioil

75 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.

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)

190019201940196019802000Zero Mostel, b. 1915Joel Schumacher, b. 1939Joel Mokyr, b. 1946Joel Coen, b. 1954Joel Murray, b. 1963Joel McHale, b. 1971Joel Kinnaman, b. 1979Joel Fry, b. 1985Jason Derulo, b. 1989Joel Embiid, b. 1994
  • 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.

Official registers attesting Joel
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020254K#211
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—144K#339
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)2022130K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—129K#252
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names202431K#76
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—22K#195
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202015K—
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—14K#151
FI FinlandDVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register)—12K—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20251.6K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.6K#211
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)20201.4K—

Reference works 8

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?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/joel

The 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), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

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.

See how Joel parses inside a full name →