Avigail
Feminine · “my father is joy”
Avigail is my father's joy in Hebrew — and Abigail in the Bible talks David out of a massacre with one speech.
How old is the name Avigail?
Avigail first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Avigail is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,200 people named Avigail are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avigail most popular?
Avigail peaked in 2016, reaching #1785 nationally. Today it ranks #2117, 332 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From av gil to Avigail
The story of Avigail
1 Samuel 25 has Abigail intercept David with provisions and an argument, and he tells her that her judgment has stopped him from shedding blood; she is one of the few people in the books of Samuel to change his mind. Avigail is standard in Israel and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
my father is joy
From the Hebrew Avigayil — av, 'father', with the first-person possessive, and gil, 'joy' or 'rejoicing'. The construction is transparent. Avigail is the Hebrew form; Abigail is the Greek and English. The reading is undisputed.
How the name formed
- av gil
- Avigayil
- Avigail
Related forms: אביגיל · Abigail · Abigaíl
Pronouncing Avigail
ah-vee-GY-eel
Four syllables, stress on the third. English Abigail is AB-ih-gayl with the stress at the front.
Nicknames for Avigail
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 2016116 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1785reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +22.2%88 in 2025, from 72
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.
Avigail in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אביגיל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Abigail in English — related form
- Abigaíl in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, California.
Avigails among us
people named Avigail are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 18,264 born in 2025 was named Avigail
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Avigail
- #2117
- Avigail on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Avigail went to 88 girls in 2025, but Avigayil is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 114, which makes it the 846th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,271 places above the chart.
- Avigail88
- Avigayil26
About 1 girl in 14,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 18,264 for Avigail 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 Sarabeth test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Avigail's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sarabeth climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sarabeth's path sketches the road Avigail is walking now.
Avigail 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 Avigail is headed
Avigail should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Avigail beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avigail in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That she argues David out of a massacre is a first-rate biblical scene.
- Avi and Gail are two short forms, both real names in their own right.
- The my-father-is-joy meaning is transparent and warm.
- Abigail is what English speakers will assume and say differently.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
- It reads as specifically Hebrew and observant.
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What they receive
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Avigail
Feminine · #2117 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Avigails are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Avigail are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Avigail?
- Avigail is the most-used spelling in US records — 88 of the 114 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Avigayil.
- How popular is the name Avigail in 2025?
- Avigail ranks #2117 among US girl names in 2025, with 88 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Avigail?
- About 1 in every 18,264 US girls born in 2025 was named Avigail — 88 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avigail with classmates?
- Avigail will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avigail
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Anylah#2117 · Krystal#2117 · Jean#2117 · Taelynn#2117 · Adelia#2117 · Aoife#2117 · Chany#2117 · Nahomy#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avigail? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avigail and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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