Abigael
Feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "father's joy".
Name Census estimates that about 1,909 living Americans carry the first name Abigael. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Abigael today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abigael births was 2009 (84 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abigael. 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 Abigael with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 179,547 Americans
Peak year
2009
84 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2004 SSA rank
#3,877
Tracked since 1980
Census
Abigael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,040 people with the first name Abigael, which placed it at #7,476 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
#7,476
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,040 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abigael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abigael is White at 51.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Black (17.5%). 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 Abigael 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 Abigael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.3% · 1,046
- Hispanic or Latino20.2% · 413
- Black or African American17.5% · 356
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 135
- Two or more races4.1% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Abigael
Out of the 1,942 babies given the name Abigael since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Abigael as a male name
- Ranked #11,372 in 2004
- 5 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (5 births)
Abigael as a female name
- Ranked #3,877 in 2024
- 38 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (84 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abigael leans strongly female. 1,946 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 92 male bearers (4.5%).
Popularity
Abigael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abigael from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 720 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abigael 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 Abigael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abigaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Florida, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Abigael, while Virginia, Georgia, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 46 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abigael
The name Abigael is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Abigail, which means "father's joy" or "source of joy". It is derived from the Hebrew words "avi" meaning "father" and "gil" meaning "joy" or "rejoice".
The name Abigail first appears in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically in the Book of Samuel. Abigail was a wife of the wealthy landowner Nabal, known for her wisdom and beauty. When David was fleeing from King Saul, Abigail intervened and prevented him from taking violent revenge against her foolish husband.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Abigael was Abigael de Neville, born in 1422 in Yorkshire, England. She was a noblewoman and the daughter of Sir Thomas Neville and Joan Beaufort.
In the 16th century, Abigael Cromwell (1559-1603) was the daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell and granddaughter of Thomas Cromwell, the chief minister to King Henry VIII. She married William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester.
Abigael Bradshaw (1651-1725) was a Quaker minister and writer from Cheshire, England. She published several works on Quaker beliefs and practices during her lifetime.
Abigael Adams (1765-1849) was the daughter of John Adams, the second President of the United States, and Abigail Adams. She was born in Massachusetts and lived during the American Revolutionary War period.
Abigael Perkins (1775-1846) was an early American folk artist and painter from Connecticut. She is known for her portraits and still life paintings, many of which are held in museum collections today.
The name Abigael combines the Hebrew roots of Abigail with a unique spelling variation, reflecting its enduring popularity over centuries as a name steeped in biblical history and cultural significance.
People
Abigael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abigael 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
Abigael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abigael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,909 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abigael 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 179,547 US residents.
Is Abigael a common name?
We classify Abigael as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,942 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abigael most popular?
The single biggest year for Abigael was 2009, when 84 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abigael is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abigael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,040 people with the name Abigael, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,476 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 Abigael 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 Abigael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abigael leans strongly female. 1,946 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 92 male bearers (4.5%). 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 Abigael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abigael is White at 51.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Black (17.5%). 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 Abigael most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Abigael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.3% (1,046 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 Abigael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abigael a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Abigael in the SSA data are female. 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 Abigael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abigael 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 Abigael 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 many people are called Abigael?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Abigael on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.