Name Awesome

Wardell

Boys' name

Watch hill

Wardell has been given to 4,326 babies in the U.S. since 1896. 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 1950, with 87 recorded.

Babies named Wardell, 2020

1 in 668,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wardell: meaning, origin, and history

Watch hill

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wardell means

Wardell means “watch hill”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Wardell is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,290 boys were recorded with the name Wardell between 1896 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 87 in 1950; its best national rank was #730 in 1935.

In the United States, 36 girls were recorded with the name Wardell between 1918 and 1944. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1918; its best national rank was #3,725 in 1942.

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 Wardell?

Wardell had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2020, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2020
1 in 668,000
5 of 3,342,313 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2020
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,344 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wardell 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 2020 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 463,344 children born in 2020 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wardell. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wardells were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wardell was born before 1950 — so the typical Wardell is around 75 today.

Median birth year
1950
About 75 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
18.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,165
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 18.2% of all recorded uses (779).

Is Wardell 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 1950 (87)
Years since peak
75
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
44.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#730
1935

Spellings of Wardell

Wardell is not the most common spelling — Darrell is, with 49.3% against Wardell's 1.3%.

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 Wardell is used

Across 1910–2025, Wardell was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 4,348 boys, against 1 in 70,019 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

023 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 4,348
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 14,286
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 14,286
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 25,000
  5. 5Illinois1 in 50,000
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 50,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in 100,000
  8. 8District of Columbia1 in 100,000

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

Notable people named Wardell

People whose public names include Wardell, 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.

Wardell 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
#730
1935
Peak year
1950
87 that year
First recorded
1896
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
4,290
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,725
1942
Peak year
1918
8 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
1944
All-time count
36
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Wardell

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

WarnellJarrellCarnellMarkellLatrellKendellMarcellWarnerDerrellPernellWindellRondellWarrickMartellJerrellCardellRonnellKentrellLyndellMontrellJewellHowellRandellDonell

Names with a curve like Wardell

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

LorenzaGlynnArtisWaymonArtieLynwoodCurtissRayfordDellFeltonLawerenceEzell

Sibling names for Wardell

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 Wardell

Top names of 1950, Wardell's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1935Boys' names starting with W