Steel
#3,173 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Steel has been given to 865 babies in the U.S. since 1984. In 2025 it ranked #3,173 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 62 recorded.
Babies named Steel, 2025
1 in 87,200
Steel 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 Steel?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 87,200
- 38 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 44,900
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #3,173
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 60,472 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Steel sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 60,472 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Steel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Steels were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Steel was born before 2016 — so the typical Steel is around 9 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 41.0% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 90.4%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 865
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 41.0% of all recorded uses (355).
Is Steel 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
- −507
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −451
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +247
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 1.15×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 61.3%
- Peak was 2021 (62)
- Years since peak
- 4
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 30.1% average annual change
Spellings of Steel
Steel is not the most common spelling — Steven is, with 83.5% against Steel's 0.06%.
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 Steel is used
Across 1910–2025, Steel was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 367,524 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Utah1 in 100,000
- 2Arizona1 in —
- 3California1 in —
- 4Florida1 in —
- 5Texas1 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. Steel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Steel around the world
Where Steel 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.
- Canada2021–2024#3,231in 2024
- South Australia1967–1967#552in 1967
Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Steel by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Steel
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Steel
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.