Name Awesome

Burl

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Burl has been given to 7,200 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1921, with 211 recorded.

Babies named Burl, 2024

1 in 478,000

Burl over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Burl: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Burl means

Burl is a given name.

The naming story behind Burl

Wikidata records Burl as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q4999082, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,181 boys were recorded with the name Burl between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 211 in 1921; its best national rank was #381 in 1887.

In the United States, 19 girls were recorded with the name Burl between 1924 and 1929. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1928; its best national rank was #3,465 in 1928.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Burl?

Burl had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 478,000
7 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 246,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
331,009 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Burl sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 331,009 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Burl. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Burls were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Burl was born before 1933 — so the typical Burl is around 92 today.

Median birth year
1933
About 92 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
23.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.67%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,783
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 23.1% of all recorded uses (1,656).

Is Burl rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1921 (211)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#381
1887

Spellings of Burl

Burl is not the most common spelling — Carl is, with 39.6% against Burl's 0.56%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Burl is used

Across 1910–2025, Burl was most concentrated in West Virginia — about 1 in 3,704 boys, against 1 in 26,554 across all states with data. It was least common in Florida (1 in —).

027 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1West Virginia1 in 3,704
  2. 2Arkansas1 in 4,000
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 4,762
  4. 4Kentucky1 in 10,000
  5. 5Tennessee1 in 11,111
  6. 6Missouri1 in 14,286
  7. 7Alabama1 in 16,667
  8. 8Texas1 in 20,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Burl has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Burl

People whose public names include Burl, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Burl by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#381
1887
Peak year
1921
211 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
7,181
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,465
1928
Peak year
1928
8 that year
First recorded
1924
Last recorded
1929
All-time count
19
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Burl

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BurkeBurtBurtonBurrBurakMurlBurleyBurenBurnellBurnsBurkBurhanBurneyBurnieBurnisBurnettBurrellBurechBurniceBurgessBurtisBurlinBurelBurdette

Names with a curve like Burl

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Burl, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ArlieOdisCletusDelmerElroyLymanVerneWiltonDewittHarmonMilfordOlen

Sibling names for Burl

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Burl

Top names of 1921, Burl's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1887Boys' names starting with B