embrisa.
embrisa.
Theme
Masculine

Joel

/ˈdʒoʊ.əl/

Yahweh is God

Hebrew

How to say it

JO · el

/ˈdʒoʊ.əl/

What it means

Hebrew Yoʾel, from Yah ('Yahweh') + ʾēl ('God'). One of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament; his book is famous for the locust-plague imagery and the prophecy 'I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh' (quoted in Acts 2).

Joel comes from the Hebrew Yoʾel (Yah 'Yahweh' + ʾēl 'God'). The prophet Joel is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible; his short book (just three chapters) describes a devastating locust plague and pivots to the prophecy of God pouring out his spirit on all flesh — quoted in Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 as the founding text of the early church. The English Joel has been steady through the centuries and surged in the 1960s and 1970s; it's now in the US top 200. Billy Joel the singer-songwriter is the strongest English-language anchor (Joel as surname). The Last of Us's Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) gave it a 2020s reboot.

Popularity over time

#10 #100 #1 #38018802025

peaked at #65 in 1981, currently #219 in 2025.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, names given to at least 5 babies in a year, 1880–present. See where the names are moving

Heads-up notes

  • Pronunciation

    JOH-el, two syllables, the E is a separate vowel sound. Not 'joll' (one syllable).

Who's worn it

Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.

  • Joel (Bible) Old Testament minor prophet, the locust-plague book and 'I will pour out my spirit' prophecy
  • Billy Joel American singer-songwriter, Piano Man and Vienna (Joel as surname)
  • Joel Miller (The Last of Us) Pedro Pascal's character in the HBO series

Spelling variants

  • Yoel
  • Joël