Name Awesome

Wendel

#13,788 in 2025Boys' name

A Vandal

Wendel has been given to 2,147 babies in the U.S. since 1911. In 2025 it ranked #13,788 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1940, with 45 recorded.

Babies named Wendel, 2025

1 in 663,000

Wendel over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wendel: meaning, origin, and history

A Vandal

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wendel means

Wendel means “a Vandal”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Wendel is used in Dutch (Rare), German (Rare) and Portuguese (Brazilian).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈʋɛn.dəl/ and /ˈvɛn.dl̩/ for Wendel.

Origin, language, and formation

Wendel is used in German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Wendelin.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Wendel is pronounced /ˈvɛndl̩/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,147 boys were recorded with the name Wendel between 1911 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 45 in 1940; its best national rank was #965 in 1940.

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 Wendel?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#13,788
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wendel 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 2025 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wendel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wendels were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wendel was born before 1952 — so the typical Wendel is around 73 today.

Median birth year
1952
About 73 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
16.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,173
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 16.0% of all recorded uses (344).

Is Wendel 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
−3,972
Places dropped
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
11.1%
Peak was 1940 (45)
Years since peak
85
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#965
1940

Spellings of Wendel

Wendel is not the most common spelling — Wendell is, with 53.8% against Wendel's 2.2%.

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 Wendel is used

Across 1910–2025, Wendel was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 494,615 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Illinois1 in —
  4. 4Indiana1 in —
  5. 5Kentucky1 in —
  6. 6Michigan1 in —
  7. 7Missouri1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 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. Wendel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Wendel around the world

Where Wendel 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.

  • France
    1909–2021
    #4,842
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1991–2022
    #2,959
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1963–1972
    #479
    in 1972

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Wendel

People whose public names include Wendel, 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.

Wendel by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#13,788
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#965
1940
Peak year
1940
45 that year
First recorded
1911
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,147
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Wendel

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

WendallMendelYandelRaudelWendyAbdelRandelAdelKendelRaydelWendalFidelMandelWensleyWenzelWendellYidelRondelWendleCordelLyndelDelEdelFadel

Names with a curve like Wendel

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

CleophusTheodisDavieShellyLorenzaWymanLawranceWaymanVernellLintonRaoulWardell

Sibling names for Wendel

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 Wendel

Top names of 1940, Wendel's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1940Boys' names starting with WGerman Names