Abigael
Feminine · “My father is joy”
Abigael is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,959 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Abigail is a name and a sentence at once: my father is joy. The woman who carries it in the Bible talks a king out of a massacre and then marries him, and she is one of the few people in Samuel who improves David's judgment.
How old is the name Abigael?
Abigael first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Abigael alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,900 people named Abigael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Abigael most popular?
Abigael peaked in 2002, reaching #2142 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 3,412 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Where it comes from
From ʾĂḇîgayil to Abigael
The story of Abigael
In First Samuel, David's men ask Nabal for provisions and are refused; Abigail, Nabal's wife, intercepts David with food and a speech that stops him killing the household, and the text says plainly that she is intelligent and beautiful and that her husband is a fool. Nabal dies and David marries her. English Puritans took the name up heavily, and in eighteenth-century English an abigail became a common noun for a lady's maid, from a character in a play. It revived enormously in America from the 1970s into the top ten; Abigael is one of the rarer variant spellings, peaking in 2002.
Meaning
My father is joy
From Hebrew ʾĂḇîgayil, from ʾāḇ, father, and gîl, joy or rejoicing. The reading is settled. Abigael is a variant spelling using the -ael ending found in Hebrew names like Michael and Raphael, though Abigail's own ending is not that element; the spelling is influenced rather than etymological.
How the name formed
- ʾĂḇîgayil
- Abigail
- Abigael
Related forms: אֲבִיגַיִל · Abigail · Abigaël · Abigaíl
Pronouncing Abigael
AB-i-gale
Three syllables, stress on the first. The -ael ending is said as a single syllable rhyming with gale; French Abigaël separates the a and e into two sounds.
Nicknames for Abigael
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
- 1980
- Most girls named
- 200984 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2142reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −42.1%22 in 2025, from 38
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.
Abigael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אֲבִיגַיִל in Hebrew — related form
- Abigail in English — spelling variant
- Abigaël in French — spelling variant
- Abigaíl in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Abigaels among us
people named Abigael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Abigael
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 Deva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Abigael's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deva climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deva's path sketches the road Abigael is walking now.
Abigael 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
Abigael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Abigael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and unusually warm.
- Abby and Gail are both complete short forms with their own histories.
- The biblical bearer is genuinely admirable and the story is easy to tell.
- Abigail is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The -ael ending invites the misreading AB-i-gay-el.
- The name was a common noun for a servant in English for two centuries.
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What they receive
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Abigael
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Abigaels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Abigael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Abigael in 2025?
- Abigael ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Abigael?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Abigael — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Abigael with classmates?
- Abigael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Abigael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Abigael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Abigael and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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