Jewell

Where Jewell comes from

Medieval/Middle English form of a Breton saint's name, from Old Breton Judicaël "lord" + "generous." The second element is from hael (“generous, bountiful”) and identical to Welsh hael (“generous”) (see that entry for details).
— Wiktionary's entry for Jewell
  • Celtic
  • English
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #628 among girls — 8 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1884
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1910
    Peak, #188
    362 babies named Jewell — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1952
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #668.
  5. 1968
    Jewell born
    American R&B singer
  6. 1993
    Jewell Loyd born
    American basketball player
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Celtic languages transferred back from the surname.
  • A female given name from English, of rare usage, variant of Jewel.
  • An unincorporated community in Marin County, California.
  • A small city in Jewell County, Kansas.
  • An unincorporated community in Clatsop County, Oregon.
Namesakes
  • Jewell Loyd · American basketball player, born 1993
  • Jewell · American R&B singer, 1968–2022
  • Jewell Marceau · American pornographic actress, born 1975
  • Jewell James Ebers · American electrical engineer, 1921–1959
  • Jewell Parker Rhodes · American writer, born 1954

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.