Majel

Girls' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Majel has been given to 349 babies in the U.S. since 1901. 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 21 recorded.

Babies named Majel, 1960

1 in 831,000

Majel over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Majel: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Majel means

Majel is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Majel is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 349 girls were recorded with the name Majel between 1901 and 1960. Its highest annual count was 21 in 1920; its best national rank was #1,842 in 1901.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Majel?

Majel had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1960, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1960: 1 in 831,000; 5 of 4,153,934 births
Among girls only: 1 in 404,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1960: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 575,859 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Majel sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1960 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 575,859 children born in 1960 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Majel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Majels were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Majel was born before 1925 — so the typical Majel is around 100 today.

Median birth year: 1925; About 100 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 39.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 23.2%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 30; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 39.3% of all recorded uses (137).

Is Majel 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 (21)
Years since peak: 105; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 21.4% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,842; 1901

Spellings of Majel

Majel is not the most common spelling — Hazel is, with 46.0% against Majel's 0.05%.

Hazel46.0%302,580
Mabel21.6%142,284
Mae17.5%114,835
Maren2.0%13,059
Janel1.8%12,023
Macey1.8%11,536
Mariel1.1%7,482
Marvel0.79%5,198

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 Majel is used

Across 1910–2025, Majel was most concentrated in Michigan — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,355,603 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Michigan1 in —
2Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Majel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Majel by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,842; 1901
Peak year: 1920; 21 that year
First recorded: 1901
Last recorded: 1960
All-time count: 349
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Majel

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

Majesti Maja Anjel Major Majesta Majesty Majestic Majorie Majda Majestii Majida Majerle Majd Majayla Majestee Majken Majuma Majestie Majenta Majella Majeeda Aunjel Majorlynn

Sibling names for Majel

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

For a sister

Norine Vina Oleta Syble Adella Lavina Velda Alene

For a brother

Junius Dock Rupert Orin Otha Hilton Casimir Edd

Explore around Majel

Top names of 1920, Majel's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1901 Girls' names starting with M