Lyell
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Lyell has been given to 140 babies in the U.S. since 1913. 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 1920, with 12 recorded.
Babies named Lyell, 1991
1 in 779,000
Lyell over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Lyell?
Lyell had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1991, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1991
- 1 in 779,000
- 5 of 3,892,928 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 404,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 1991
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 539,676 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Lyell sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1991 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 539,676 children born in 1991 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lyell. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Lyells were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Lyell was born before 1925 — so the typical Lyell is around 100 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1920s
- 40.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 7.1%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 16
- People you could plausibly meet
1920s — 40.7% of all recorded uses (57).
Is Lyell 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 1920 (12)
- Years since peak
- 105
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 20.8% average annual change
Spellings of Lyell
Lyell is not the most common spelling — Lyle is, with 35.5% against Lyell's 0.08%.
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.
Lyell around the world
Where Lyell ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- South Australia1944–1975#322in 1975
Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Lyell by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Lyell
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Lyell
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.