Joel
Meaning of Joel
Joel comes from the Hebrew name Yo'el, meaning "Yahweh is God." It combines yo, a short form of Yahweh, with el, the Hebrew word for God. In both American and British English it is pronounced JOH-ul.
In the Bible, Joel is one of the twelve minor prophets, and the Book of Joel, which opens with a plague of locusts, is named after him. Well-known bearers today include basketball star Joel Embiid, the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 2023, and Australian actor Joel Edgerton.
In the United States, Joel reached its highest rank, 65th, in 1981, and it was given most often in 1985, to 4,623 boys. It has slipped since then. In 2025 it ranked 219th with 1,633 babies, the same rank it held in 2024.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as JOH-ul (/dʒəʊl/)
American English
- Pronunced as JOH-ul (/dʒoʊl/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Joel
| Joel Embiid is a Cameroonian American center for the Philadelphia 76ers, the 2014 third pick, a 7 time All Star and 2023 NBA MVP, 2 time scoring champion, and 2024 US Olympic gold medalist. |
| Joel Chandler Harris, an American journalist and folklorist from Georgia best known for the Uncle Remus stories, apprenticed on a plantation as a teen and later worked as an associate editor at The Atlanta Constitution. |
| Joel Roberts Poinsett was an American physician, botanist, and statesman who served as the first U.S. agent in South America, a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, and the first U.S. Minister to Mexico. |
| Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose nearly five-decade career spanned many genres but he was best known for Westerns. |
| Joel Kinnaman is a Swedish American actor known for The Killing, Altered Carbon, House of Cards, RoboCop, the Suicide Squad films, and For All Mankind. |
| Joel McHale is an American actor, comedian, and TV host best known for The Soup and Community, with film roles in Spider-Man 2, Spy Kids All the Time in the World, Ted, and The Happytime Murders. |
| Joel Edgerton is an Australian actor and filmmaker known for The Secret Life of Us, playing Owen Lars in Star Wars, voicing Metal Beak in Legend of the Guardians, and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Loving. |
| Joel Rueben Madden is an American singer best known as the lead vocalist of Good Charlotte and as one half of the Madden Brothers with his identical twin Benji Madden. |
| Joel David Moore is an American character actor and director from Portland, known for Dodgeball and roles in Grandmas Boy, Art School Confidential, and Hatchet. |
| Joel Timothy Houston is an Australian musician, songwriter and pastor best known as a leader of Hillsong United, the worship band of Hillsong Church based in Sydney. |
| Joël Matip - Job Joel Andre Matip is a former professional footballer who played as a centre back. |
