# Howell (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/howell/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Welsh |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /haʊ(w)əɫ/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 3,923 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 3,923 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 8, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Welsh Hywel. Doublet of Huell and Powell.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 8 | 8,127 |
| 2005 | 10 | 7,323 |
| 2008 | 7 | 10,282 |
| 2011 | 6 | 11,366 |
| 2012 | 7 | 10,105 |
| 2013 | 5 | 12,844 |
| 2015 | 7 | 9,946 |
| 2017 | 5 | 12,995 |
| 2019 | 6 | 11,286 |
| 2020 | 14 | 6,090 |
| 2021 | 9 | 8,422 |
| 2022 | 9 | 8,567 |
| 2023 | 10 | 7,924 |
| 2024 | 11 | 7,435 |
| 2025 | 12 | 6,947 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 4 | 3,937 |
| 2024 | 4 | 4,270 |

## People named Howell

- Howell Cobb, American politician (1815–1868)
- Howell Heflin, Democratic United States Senator from Alabama (1921-2005)
- Howell Edmunds Jackson, American jurist and politician (1832-1895)
- Crawford Howell Toy, American biblical and Hebrew scholar (1836–1919)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.