Gabriela
Feminine · “God is my strength”
Gabriela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 86,182 girls against 371 boys since 1880.
Gabriela is the Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Romanian form of a name that reaches back to the Hebrew Gavri'el, the archangel who speaks in the Book of Daniel and again in Luke's account of the annunciation. Four syllables that rise and fall in the middle — gah-bree-EL-ah — and a long history of being trimmed to two. It has been on American records since the early twentieth century without ever disappearing.
How old is the name Gabriela?
Gabriela first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Gabriela alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 84,500 people named Gabriela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gabriela most popular?
Gabriela peaked in 2003, reaching #102 nationally. Today it ranks #317, 215 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Gabriela appears on these lists:
- Under the radar: quietly excellent picks
- Four-syllable names that carry
- Eight-letter names with presence
- Spanish and Latin names with warmth
- Eastern European names in American use
- Latin American and Caribbean names
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From Gavri'el to Gabriela
The story of Gabriela
The name begins as the Hebrew Gavri'el, borne by the archangel who interprets visions in the Book of Daniel and, in the Gospel of Luke, announces the birth of Jesus; the same figure is Jibril in Islamic tradition. Greek translators wrote it Gabriēl, Latin kept that form, and medieval Europe took it up through the church. Feminine forms grew from it in several languages at once: Gabrielle in French, Gabriella in Italian, and Gabriela across Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Romanian. That last spelling is the one that traveled widely in the Americas, which is why it reads as equally at home in a Spanish-speaking household and an English-speaking one.
Meaning
God is my strength
The Hebrew name joins gever, a word for man or strength, with El, God; scholars render it 'God is my strength' or 'strong man of God' depending on how they read the first element. The sense of divine strength is not in dispute.
How the name formed
- Gavri'el
- Gabriēl
- Gabriel
- Gabriela
Related forms: Gabriella · Gabrielle · Gabriela · Gavriela · Gabriela · Gabriele
Pronouncing Gabriela
gah-bree-EL-ah
Spanish and Portuguese speakers put the stress on the third syllable, as above. English speakers often say GAB-ree-el-a with a flatter first vowel; both are in ordinary use and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Gabriela
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 20033,362 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #102reached in 2003
- Change vs 2023
- −8.5%961 in 2025, from 1,050
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.
Gabriela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gabriella in Italian — spelling variant
- Gabrielle in French — related form
- Gabriela in Polish — same name
- Gavriela in Hebrew — transliteration
- Gabriela in Romanian — same name
- Gabriele in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Gabrielas among us
people named Gabriela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,672 born in 2025 was named Gabriela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gabriela
- #317
- Gabriela on the 2025 chart
- #80
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gabriela went to 961 girls in 2025, but Gabriella is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 3,516, which makes it the 80th most-given girls’ name of the year — 237 places above the chart.
- Gabriella2,545
- Gabriela961
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 457 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,672 for Gabriela 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 Becky test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gabriela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Becky climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Becky's path sketches the road Gabriela is walking now.
Gabriela 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 Gabriela is headed
Gabriela should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Gabriela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gabriela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works in Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Romanian without changing a letter, and stays recognizable to English speakers.
- A documented line back to the Hebrew Gavri'el, one of the oldest names still in continuous use.
- Several long-established short forms — Gabi, Gaby, Gabby, Ella — so there is room to be formal or casual.
- Familiar enough that most people will not ask what it means, and not so common that classrooms fill up with it.
- The single-l spelling competes with Gabriella and Gabrielle, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections when the name is written down by someone hearing it for the first time.
- The stress moves between Spanish and English pronunciations. Bilingual families usually settle this easily, but it does mean the name will be said two ways over a lifetime.
- Gabby, the most common English short form, is also an ordinary English word for someone who talks a lot. Most people never make the connection; a few will.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Gabriela
Feminine · #317 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gabrielas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 84,500 people named Gabriela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gabriela?
- Gabriela is one of 2 recorded spellings. Gabriella is the more common one — 2,545 births in 2025 against 961 for Gabriela.
- How popular is the name Gabriela in 2025?
- Gabriela ranks #317 among US girl names in 2025, with 961 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gabriela?
- About 1 in every 1,672 US girls born in 2025 was named Gabriela — 961 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gabriela with classmates?
- Gabriela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gabriela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frances#318 · Colette#316 · Madisson#319 · Amina#315 · Samara#320 · Brooke#313 · Catherine#313 · Sabrina#321
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gabriela? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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