Abigayle
Feminine · “my father is joy”
Abigayle is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 6,185 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Abigail is a joke about a father and a piece of very sharp diplomacy. In the book of Samuel she talks a future king out of a massacre with a speech and a train of loaded donkeys, and her name is a happy one: my father is joy. Abigayle is the American respelling.
How old is the name Abigayle?
Abigayle first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Abigayle alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 6,100 people named Abigayle are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Abigayle most popular?
Abigayle peaked in 2001, reaching #712 nationally. Today it ranks #4878, 4,166 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Avigayil to Abigayle
The story of Abigayle
The story in Samuel gives her more agency than almost any woman in the historical books: she intercepts an armed party, argues, and changes the outcome. English Puritans took the name up after the Reformation, and it became so common as a servant's name in seventeenth-century plays that abigail briefly became an English word for a lady's maid. It went quiet, then returned hard in the nineteen-nineties in the United States, and the respellings followed: Abigale, Abigayle and Abbigail all appeared with the popularity.
Meaning
my father is joy
Hebrew Avigayil: avi, my father, joined to gil, joy or rejoicing. The name is a small sentence and the reading has never been seriously disputed.
How the name formed
- Avigayil
- Abigail
- Abigayle
Related forms: אביגיל · Abigail · Abigaíl · Abigaëlle
Pronouncing Abigayle
AB-ih-gale
Three syllables, stress in front, the last rhyming with sail. The respelling changes nothing about the sound.
Nicknames for Abigayle
High
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 2005354 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #712reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +17.4%27 in 2025, from 23
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.
Abigayle in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אביגיל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Abigail in English — spelling variant
- Abigaíl in Spanish — same name
- Abigaëlle in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Abigayles among us
people named Abigayle are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was named Abigayle
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 Nicolle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Abigayle's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nicolle climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nicolle's path sketches the road Abigayle is walking now.
Abigayle 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 Abigayle is headed
Abigayle is easing off slowly — about 26% 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.
Abigayle beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Abigayle 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 a complete sentence and a cheerful one.
- It offers short forms at both ends, Abby and Gail, which are quite different in register.
- Its biblical bearer has an unusually active and admirable story.
- Abigail is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected constantly.
- The name was very heavily used around the turn of the century, so the child will meet others under Abby.
- Abigail, Abigale and Abigayle are all in circulation, which guarantees written confusion.
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What they receive
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Abigayle
Feminine · #4878 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Abigayles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,100 people named Abigayle are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Abigayle in 2025?
- Abigayle ranks #4878 among US girl names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Abigayle?
- About 1 in every 59,528 US girls born in 2025 was named Abigayle — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Abigayle with classmates?
- Abigayle will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Abigayle
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maribelle#4878 · Evangelia#4878 · Pari#4878 · Zoraya#4878 · Saba#4878 · Chyna#4878 · Odyssey#4878 · Zana#4878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Abigayle? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Abigayle and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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