Masterpiece Generator Name Generator
How popular is the name Hywel?
Births per year, rank history and how many Hywels are alive today.
Hywel (male) is a rare boys' name in England and Wales, ranked 3256th in 2025 and given to 6 babies. The name peaked in 1996, when 28 babies were given the name, the 588th most popular that year. It has declined since 1996; the 2025 figure is roughly 21% of its peak.
The Hywel you are most likely to meet is around 31 years old. Half of all Hywels born in England and Wales are between 17 and 34, and there are at least 450 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 males, there's less than a 1% chance that anyone will be called Hywel - on average, only one in every 674 such rooms contains a Hywel.
How many babies are named Hywel each year?
Where does Hywel rank among boys' names?
Where this data comes from
Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.
One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.
Common questions
When was the name Hywel most popular?
Hywel peaked in 1996, when 28 babies in England and Wales were given the name.
How many people are called Hywel?
At least 450 people named Hywel born in England and Wales are alive today.
How old is the typical Hywel?
Most living Hywels are between 17 and 34; the most common age is about 31.
Is Hywel becoming more or less popular?
Well past its peak: today's figures are a fraction of the 1996 peak, though numbers have levelled off in recent years.