Abel
Masculine · “breath”
Abel is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 66,037 boys against 161 girls since 1880.
Abel is one of the oldest names still in ordinary use — it stands in the opening chapters of Genesis, and it has been read aloud in synagogues and churches for well over two thousand years without ever needing to be revived. Two syllables, four letters, and a soft landing on the L. It travels almost unchanged from English into Spanish, French and Portuguese, which is part of why it turns up wherever those languages meet.
How old is the name Abel?
Abel was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Abel alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 60,500 people named Abel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Abel most popular?
Abel peaked in 2015, reaching #124 nationally. Today it ranks #231, 107 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Where it comes from
From Hevel to Abel
The story of Abel
Abel begins as the Hebrew Hevel, the second son of Adam and Eve in Genesis and the first shepherd in the book. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek in the last centuries BC, they wrote it Ἄβελ, and Latin took it from there as Abel — the form English, Spanish, French and German all still use. It spread as a Christian given name across medieval Europe, and later traveled with Europeans by sea; the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, sailing in the seventeenth century, left the name attached to Tasmania. In the United States it has never had to be rediscovered, and its strength today in California, Texas and Florida reflects how comfortably it sits in both Spanish and English.
Meaningscholars disagree
breath, vapour
The Hebrew name Hevel is the same word used for "breath" or "vapour" — the fleeting thing you can see on a cold morning and then cannot. That is the traditional reading and the most widely given one. Some scholars instead connect the name to the Akkadian word for "son", and others to an old Semitic root for a herdsman, which suits the Genesis account of Abel as a keeper of flocks. The three readings have coexisted for a long time without one winning.
Cultural footprint
Abel Tasman (b. 1603) — The explorer Tasmania is named after
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Hevel
- ἌβελAbel
- Abel
Related forms: Abel · Abel · Abel · Ábel · Abele · Hevel
Pronouncing Abel
AY-bul
In English it is a homophone of the word "able". Spanish and French speakers put the stress on the second syllable instead — ah-BEL — so a bilingual family may hear both versions of the same name at the same table.
Nicknames for Abel
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20163,045 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #124reached in 2015
- Change vs 2022
- −13.8%1,525 in 2025, from 1,769
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Abel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Abel in Spanish — same name
- Abel in French — same name
- Abel in Portuguese — same name
- Ábel in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Abele in Italian — related form
- Hevel in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Abels among us
people named Abel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,120 born in 2025 was named Abel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Abraham test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Abel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Abraham climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Abraham's path sketches the road Abel is walking now.
Abel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Abel is headed
Abel is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Abel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Abel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, phonetic, and already familiar to almost every English speaker — rarely misspelled, rarely mispronounced.
- Works in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese with the same spelling, which matters in a household or extended family that uses more than one.
- A continuous written record going back to the Hebrew Bible, so it has never depended on a fashion to survive.
- Also charts in France, giving it recognition beyond the US.
- Has a long-established short form, Abe, for anyone who wants one.
- The Genesis story is inseparable from the name: Abel is the brother who is killed by Cain. Most people simply register the name as biblical, but some hear the story first, and it is worth knowing that before you commit.
- In English it sounds exactly like "able", which can lead to a lifetime of small wordplay — usually mild, occasionally tiresome.
- Stress falls differently in English and Spanish, so a child may answer to two slightly different versions of their own name depending on who is speaking.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Abel
Masculine · #231 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Abels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 60,500 people named Abel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Abel in 2025?
- Abel ranks #231 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,525 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Abel?
- About 1 in every 1,120 US boys born in 2025 was named Abel — 1,525 in all.
- Will my child share the name Abel with classmates?
- Abel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Abel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alex#232 · Simon#230 · Justin#233 · Brayden#229 · Richard#234 · Grant#228 · Callahan#227 · Patrick#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Abel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Abel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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