Terrell
- Pronunciation
- [Te-rrell]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Thunder Ruler
- Origin
- English
About the Name Terrell
Terrell is an English surname-turned-given-name deriving from the Old French tirel or tirael, ultimately from a Germanic root associated with pulling or drawing — sometimes linked to the concept of a "thunder ruler" in medieval heraldic glosses, though the more documented etymology points to an occupational or descriptive surname for one who pulled or drew something, possibly a craftsman or someone associated with a particular physical trait. The name was borne by several Norman-English families after the Conquest of 1066, and its transfer to given-name use in twentieth-century America followed the broader American pattern of adopting strong-sounding English surnames as masculine first names.
The name gained particular cultural visibility through Terrell Owens (born 1973), an American former professional football player whose 16-season NFL career produced one of the most prolific wide-receiver careers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including 1,078 career receptions.
Terrell entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 at its peak rank of #409 and remained on the chart through 2018, giving it an eighteen-year run. In that final charted year it ranked #968 with 215 boys. More than 7,700 boys were named Terrell within the SSA top-1000 era. Variants include Terell, Terrall, Terrel, Terrelle, Terrill, and Tyrell — a wide range of spellings that share the same strong, two-syllable sound and allow families to individualize the name's written form.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Terrell
US Popularity History (2000–2018)
Annual US births named Terrell by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 608 boys named Terrell (boy rank #409 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2018, ranked #968 for boys (215 US births). That's 559 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Terrell Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Terrell the strongest states are Mississippi, Louisiana, Pennsylvania.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #549 | 23 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #628 | 70 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #711 | 48 |
| 4 | Maryland | #735 | 41 |
| 5 | Tennessee | #738 | 45 |
| 6 | Alabama | #742 | 30 |
| 7 | Illinois | #771 | 118 |
| 8 | South Carolina | #781 | 15 |
| 9 | Georgia | #793 | 99 |
| 10 | Florida | #795 | 132 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina | #863 | 39 |
| 2 | Minnesota | #863 | 16 |
| 3 | Missouri | #834 | 45 |
| 4 | Ohio | #829 | 73 |
| 5 | Virginia | #798 | 58 |
| 6 | Michigan | #797 | 90 |
| 7 | Florida | #795 | 132 |
| 8 | Georgia | #793 | 99 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #781 | 15 |
| 10 | Illinois | #771 | 118 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Terrell in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Terrell
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Terrell.
- Terrell Owens — Football Player (1973)
Looking for names like Terrell?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Terrell to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Terrell against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).