Avigayil
Feminine · “my father is joy”
Avigayil is Abigail in Hebrew letters and Hebrew shape: a small sentence saying that a father rejoices. The woman who carries it in the book of Samuel talks an armed and furious future king out of a massacre, with a speech and a train of loaded donkeys, and wins.
How old is the name Avigayil?
Avigayil first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Avigayil alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 700 people named Avigayil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Avigayil most popular?
Avigayil peaked in 2022, reaching #4202 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 785 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Avigayil to Avigayil
The story of Avigayil
The story in Samuel gives her unusual agency for a woman in the historical books: she intercepts, argues, and changes an outcome that was already in motion. The name stayed in Jewish use continuously and reached English separately through Protestant biblical naming after the Reformation, becoming Abigail. Modern Hebrew keeps Avigayil, which is the standard Israeli spelling, and it appears in American records with Israeli and observant Jewish families rather than through the English road.
Meaning
my father is joy
Hebrew Avigayil: avi, my father, joined to gil, joy or rejoicing. Both elements are transparent and the reading has never been disputed.
How the name formed
- Avigayil
- Abigail
Related forms: אביגיל · Abigail · Abigaíl · Abigaëlle
Pronouncing Avigayil
ah-vee-GY-eel
Four syllables with the stress toward the end, the third rhyming with sky. English speakers usually reach for Abigail instead, which is the same name in English dress.
Nicknames for Avigayil
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
- 1984
- Most girls named
- 202234 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4202reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +8.3%26 in 2025, from 24
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.
Avigayil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אביגיל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Abigail in English — same name
- Abigaíl in Spanish — same name
- Abigaëlle in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New Jersey, New York.
Avigayils among us
people named Avigayil are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Avigayil
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Avigayil
- #4987
- Avigayil on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Avigayil went to 26 girls in 2025, but Avigail 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 — 4,141 places above the chart.
- Avigail88
- Avigayil26
About 1 girl in 14,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Avigayil 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 Dannah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Avigayil's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dannah climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dannah's path sketches the road Avigayil is walking now.
Avigayil 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 Avigayil is headed
Avigayil looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Avigayil beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Avigayil 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.
- Avi and Abby are ready short forms for Hebrew-speaking and English-speaking settings respectively.
- Its bearer has an unusually active and admirable story attached.
- American forms will default to Abigail, and the correction becomes routine.
- Avigayil, Avigail and Abigail all appear within single families, which complicates paperwork.
- Four syllables with a Hebrew stress pattern gets flattened in English speech.
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What they receive
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Avigayil
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Avigayils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Avigayil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Avigayil?
- Avigayil is one of 2 recorded spellings. Avigail is the more common one — 88 births in 2025 against 26 for Avigayil.
- How popular is the name Avigayil in 2025?
- Avigayil ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Avigayil?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Avigayil — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Avigayil with classmates?
- Avigayil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Avigayil
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Avigayil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Avigayil and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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