Name Awesome

Newell

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Newell has been given to 3,319 babies in the U.S. since 1881. 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 1916, with 96 recorded.

Babies named Newell, 2019

1 in 386,000

Newell over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Newell: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Newell means

Newell is a given name.

The naming story behind Newell

Wikidata records Newell as a unisex given name. The entity identifier is Q21161973, 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, 3,240 boys were recorded with the name Newell between 1881 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 96 in 1916; its best national rank was #479 in 1881.

In the United States, 79 girls were recorded with the name Newell between 1914 and 1928. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1916; its best national rank was #3,191 in 1916.

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 Newell?

Newell had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 386,000
9 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 199,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
267,420 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Newell 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 2019 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 267,420 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Newell. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Newells were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Newell was born before 1931 — so the typical Newell is around 94 today.

Median birth year
1931
About 94 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
21.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
730
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (704).

Is Newell 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 1916 (96)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#479
1881

Spellings of Newell

Newell is not the most common spelling — Lowell is, with 52.5% against Newell's 4.1%.

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 Newell is used

Across 1910–2025, Newell was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 20,000 boys, against 1 in 234,996 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 20,000
  2. 2Tennessee1 in 50,000
  3. 3Idaho1 in 100,000
  4. 4Maine1 in 100,000
  5. 5North Carolina1 in 100,000
  6. 6Texas1 in 100,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in —
  8. 8California1 in —

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. Newell has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Newell around the world

Where Newell 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 Australia
    1971–1971
    #512
    in 1971

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Newell

People whose public names include Newell, 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.

Newell in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Newell. Linked forms have their own page here.

Newel

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Newell 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
#479
1881
Peak year
1916
96 that year
First recorded
1881
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
3,240
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,191
1916
Peak year
1916
9 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
1928
All-time count
79
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Newell

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

NewtonLovellJarellLavellTerellHowellJewellDonellJamellDarellLydellNewmanJerellRonellMikellPowellRomellPernellWindellRondellLatrellMartellJarrellCardell

Names with a curve like Newell

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

CloydArvidClovisHaskellVernieMurryElmoreVesterNorwoodElzieMerlVerl

Sibling names for Newell

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 Newell

Top names of 1916, Newell's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with N