Given name & surname
Yale
“from the fertile upland”
Yale is used as a given name and a surname. One Welsh interpretation is “from the fertile upland.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Welsh interpretation is “from the fertile upland.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Welsh.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1908. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Yale through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,416
- 1,416 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1929
- 29 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −80%
- Cooling
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2022. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 29 in 1929. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 981 as a first name in 2020; 2,132 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Yale’s family of names
Yale has a related form in Yail. Yale has a related form in Yaile. Yale has a related form in Yayl.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Yale
- Yale LaryAmerican football player, businessman, and politician (1930–2017)
- Yale PattAmerican professor of electrical and computer engineeringborn 1939
- Yale BossAmerican actor (1899-1977)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Yale, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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