Meaning of the nameJoel

Joel is a male name of Hebrew origin, from Yoʾel, 'Yahweh is God', the name of one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament.

Meaning

“Yahweh is God”

Source: Behind the Name: Joel · Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Joel

More names that mean God

People (2022): 129,772
Rank in Brazil: #252
Median age: 46 years
2010 Census: 144,437; people

Joel in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Joel, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1970s (27,806 people).

510 women 129,262 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Joel is most common

States with the highest share of people named Joel in the population, in the 2022 Census.

Santa Catarina 0.095%
Pará 0.094%
Paraná 0.094%
Rondônia 0.088%
Roraima 0.088%

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	24,479	0.055%
Minas Gerais	11,619	0.057%
Paraná	10,762	0.094%
Rio Grande do Sul	9,491	0.087%
Bahia	9,400	0.067%
Rio de Janeiro	9,169	0.057%
Pará	7,638	0.094%
Santa Catarina	7,211	0.095%
Pernambuco	4,375	0.048%
Maranhão	4,144	0.061%
Ceará	4,109	0.047%
Goiás	4,075	0.058%
Amazonas	3,352	0.085%
Espírito Santo	2,862	0.075%
Mato Grosso	2,807	0.077%
Mato Grosso do Sul	2,110	0.077%
Paraíba	1,787	0.045%
Piauí	1,656	0.051%
Rondônia	1,389	0.088%
Distrito Federal	1,207	0.043%
Alagoas	1,206	0.039%
Rio Grande do Norte	1,173	0.036%
Sergipe	1,074	0.049%
Tocantins	1,020	0.068%
Amapá	589	0.080%
Roraima	557	0.088%
Acre	511	0.062%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Joel

Behind the Name explains Hebrew Yoʾel as 'Yahweh is God', with the elements yo and ʾel, both referring to the Hebrew God. In its English entry, Wiktionary traces the name through Late Latin Ioel and Koine Greek Ἰωήλ to Biblical Hebrew yo'él, and the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil, citing Machado (1981), records 'Yahweh is God', through Biblical Latin Joel. In the Bible, Joel is one of the minor prophets and gives his name to a book. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 129,772 people named Joel, with a median age of 46; proportionally, it is most common in Santa Catarina.

Sources

Behind the Name: Joel · behindthename.com · meaning
Wiktionary: Joel · en.wiktionary.org · origin
Wiktionary: Joel (Portuguese) · en.wiktionary.org · usage
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Joel · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · meaning

Questions about the name Joel

What does the name Joel mean?

Joel means “Yahweh is God”, according to Behind the Name and Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil.

How many people are named Joel in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 129,772 people with the first name Joel, which ranks it number 252 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1970s.

Is Joel a boy's or a girl's name?

Joel is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 510 women and 129,262 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Joel?

Joel is a name of Hebrew origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Joel most common?

Proportionally, in Santa Catarina: 0.095% of the state's population is named Joel (7,211 people), according to the 2022 Census.

Names that also mean God

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More names of Hebrew origin

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Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Joel with a source. See the methodology.