Azrael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “help of God”
Azrael is given to both — 3,188 boys and 361 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Azrael is built from two of the oldest pieces in Hebrew naming — the verb for help and the word for God — and it belongs to the same family as Azriel, which stands in the Hebrew Bible. It is also the name post-Quranic Islamic tradition gives the angel of death, which is why the word carries more weight than most three-syllable names. Said aloud it opens wide and closes soft: AZ-ree-el.
How old is the name Azrael?
Azrael first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Azrael is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,200 people named Azrael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Azrael most popular?
Azrael peaked in 2025, reaching #656 nationally. Today it ranks #656, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Azrael appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From ʿAzarʾel (Hebrew) to Azrael
The story of Azrael
The name's bones are Hebrew, and its close relatives Azriel and Azarel are recorded in the biblical books of Jeremiah and Chronicles. The Azrael spelling traveled mainly through angelology: the Quran speaks of malak al-mawt, the angel of death, and later Islamic tradition names that angel Azra'il, a form still current as Azrail in Turkish. The same figure carries the name Azrael in later Jewish folklore, and nineteenth-century English writers borrowed it from there, which is how the word reached general English before it was ever much used for children. Its life as an American given name is genuinely recent — a wave that has been building rather than fading.
Meaning
help of God
From the Hebrew elements ʿazar, "to help," and El, "God" — the same pair behind Azriel and Azarel, both of which appear as men's names in the Hebrew Bible.
How the name formed
- ʿAzarʾelHebrew
- Azriel
- Azra'ilArabic
- Azrael
Related forms: Azra'il · Azrail · Azriel · Azarel · Izrail · Азраил (Azrail)
Pronouncing Azrael
AZ-ree-el
AZ-ray-el is also widely heard in the US, and the Turkish and Arabic forms end closer to -ah-EEL. Expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Azrael
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
- 1994
- Most boys named
- 2025421 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #656reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +17.6%421 in 2025, from 358
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.
Azrael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Azra'il in Arabic — transliteration
- Azrail in Turkish — same name
- Azriel in Hebrew — related form
- Azarel in Hebrew — related form
- Izrail in Indonesian — related form
- Азраил (Azrail) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Azraels among us
people named Azrael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,057 born in 2025 was named Azrael
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 Timmothy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Azrael's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Timmothy climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Timmothy's path sketches the road Azrael is walking now.
Azrael is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Azrael is headed
Azrael looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 25% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Azrael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Azrael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Transparent, settled meaning — "help of God" — from elements a parent can point to in Hebrew.
- Exists in Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew and Indonesian forms, so the name is recognizable well beyond English.
- Ready-made short forms: Az and Azzy need no explaining.
- Rising rather than receding, so the spelling is growing more familiar year on year while a child is still unlikely to share it in class.
- The angel-of-death association is the first thing many adults will think of, and some will say so out loud. It is not an obscure connection — it is the main route by which the word entered English.
- Popular culture has used it too: Azrael is Gargamel's cat in the Smurfs and a DC Comics character connected to Batman. Neither is unkind, but both may come up.
- Two live pronunciations, AZ-ree-el and AZ-ray-el, and a common misspelling as Azreal, with the vowels flipped.
- Because its wave is so new, nearly everyone carrying this name in the US is a child — there are few adult Azraels to make the name feel ordinary yet.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Azrael to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Azrael? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Azrael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #656 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Azraels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Azrael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Azrael in 2025?
- Azrael ranks #656 among US boy names in 2025, with 421 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Azrael?
- About 1 in every 4,057 US boys born in 2025 was named Azrael — 421 in all.
- Will my child share the name Azrael with classmates?
- Azrael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Azrael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jaime#657 · Tommy#657 · Lionel#659 · Wayne#652 · Princeton#652 · Quincy#652 · Otis#652 · Valentin#660
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Azrael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Azrael and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle