Wendell comes from a German surname and ultimately from the Germanic Wendel, which means "a Wend" or "a Vandal", after the Slavic Wends who lived along the Elbe. In the United States it was made respectable by the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, his son the Supreme Court justice and the 1940 presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. Wendell peaked at number 1266 in 2002 and ranks number 2165 in 2025.