Abe
Father of many nations, from the Hebrew "Abram".
Name Census estimates that about 3,526 living Americans carry the first name Abe. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abe today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abe births was 1917 (280 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abe. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Abe with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,208 Americans
Peak year
1917
280 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,416
Tracked since 1880
Census
Abe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,266 people with the first name Abe, which placed it at #3,768 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,768
National first-name rank
People counted
5.3K
5,266 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abe is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.6%) and Black (12.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Abe described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Abe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.9% · 3,312
- Hispanic or Latino14.6% · 770
- Black or African American12.5% · 660
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.1% · 321
- Two or more races2.9% · 153
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 50
Popularity
Abe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abe from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 2,099 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abe by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Abe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. New York, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Abe, while West Virginia, Oklahoma, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 144 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abe
The name Abe is a short form of the Hebrew name Abram or Abraham, which means "father of many" or "father of a multitude" in Hebrew. This name has its origins in ancient Semitic cultures and can be traced back to the biblical figure Abraham, who is considered the founding patriarch of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths.
The name Abraham is mentioned extensively in religious texts such as the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the New Testament, and the Quran. In the Book of Genesis, Abraham is portrayed as a central figure who received a covenant from God, promising him numerous descendants and a land for his people.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Abe was Abe no Seimei, a renowned Japanese onmyoji (a practitioner of traditional Japanese occult studies) who lived from 921 to 1005 CE. He is known for his contributions to the development of onmyodo, a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology and occult philosophy.
In the medieval period, Abe Sadayoshi (1162-1230) was a prominent Japanese samurai and military commander who served under the Minamoto clan during the Genpei War, a conflict between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan.
During the Renaissance, Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) was a renowned Flemish cartographer and geographer who created the first modern atlas, known as the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" (Theatre of the World).
In the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th President of the United States, who led the country during the American Civil War and is renowned for abolishing slavery and preserving the Union.
Another notable figure was Abe Isoo (1865-1949), a Japanese statesman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1976 to 1977 and played a significant role in the country's post-World War II reconstruction efforts.
People
Abe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abe as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Abe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,526 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abe going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 97,208 US residents.
Is Abe a common name?
We classify Abe as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,628 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abe most popular?
The single biggest year for Abe was 1917, when 280 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abe is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,266 people with the name Abe, or 1.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,768 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Abe in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Abe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abe leans strongly male. 5,161 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 97 female bearers (1.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Abe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abe is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.6%) and Black (12.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Abe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Abe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.9% (3,312 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Abe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abe a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abe in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Abe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abe in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Abe can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Abe?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.