Recorded 1889–2023 · United States
Ardell was most popular in 1923, when 151 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,074 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 5,070 people named Ardell.
Ardell first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1889, which makes it about 136 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 122 of the 137 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 5,070 American births named Ardell between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 1,561 are estimated to be alive today.
Ardell was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Ardell is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 5 births a year across 2021–2025 against 8 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Ardell is a unisex name — 52.0% of the 5,070 Americans given it were girls and 48.0% were boys. It changed hands: since 1961 it has gone mainly to boys, having gone mainly to girls before that. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 1,561 Americans named Ardell are alive today — 31% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 71 years old, and half are between 55 and 82.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Ardell on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org