Abigale
Feminine · “My father is joy”
Abigale is Abigail with the ending respelled, and the respelling makes visible something the standard spelling hides: the last syllable really is the English word gale. The Hebrew behind it means my father is joy.
How old is the name Abigale?
Abigale first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Abigale alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 5,800 people named Abigale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Abigale most popular?
Abigale peaked in 2003, reaching #797 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 4,757 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Where it comes from
From ʾĂḇîgayil to Abigale
The story of Abigale
Abigail in First Samuel talks David out of killing her husband's household, and the text is unusually direct in saying she is intelligent and he is a fool; she later marries David. The name was heavily used by English Puritans, and in eighteenth-century English an abigail became a common noun for a lady's maid, from a servant character in Beaumont and Fletcher — the name was so associated with servants that Jonathan Swift uses it that way. It revived enormously in America from the 1970s into the top ten, and the respellings followed: Abigale, Abigael, Abbigail and Abagail all appear, with Abigale peaking in 2003.
Meaning
My father is joy
From Hebrew ʾĂḇîgayil, from ʾāḇ, father, and gîl, joy or rejoicing. The reading is settled. The -gale spelling is an American respelling of the -gail ending; the English word gale, a strong wind, is unrelated and its own origin is uncertain. The similarity is accidental.
How the name formed
- ʾĂḇîgayil
- Abigail
- Abigale
Related forms: אֲבִיגַיִל · Abigail · Abigaíl · Abigaëlle
Pronouncing Abigale
AB-i-gale
Three syllables, stress on the first, identical to Abigail. The respelling only makes the final syllable's sound explicit.
Nicknames for Abigale
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 2003310 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #797reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −18.5%22 in 2025, from 27
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.
Abigale in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אֲבִיגַיִל in Hebrew — related form
- Abigail in English — spelling variant
- Abigaíl in Spanish — related form
- Abigaëlle in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Abigales among us
people named Abigale are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Abigale
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Abigale
- #5554
- Abigale on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Abigale went to 22 girls in 2025, but Abbigale and Abbygale are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,627 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Abigale itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Stephaine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Abigale's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Stephaine climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Stephaine's path sketches the road Abigale is walking now.
Abigale 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
Abigale beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Abigale 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 Gale are both complete short forms with their own histories.
- The biblical bearer is genuinely admirable.
- Abigail is the standard spelling and will be written for it, always.
- The ending spells the English word for a strong wind, which is accidental.
- The name was an English common noun for a servant for two centuries.
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What they receive
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Abigale
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Abigales are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,800 people named Abigale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Abigale?
- Abigale is the most-used spelling in US records — 22 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Abbigale and Abbygale.
- How popular is the name Abigale in 2025?
- Abigale ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Abigale?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Abigale — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Abigale with classmates?
- Abigale will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Abigale
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 Abigale? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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