Avigail
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "father's joy".
Name Census estimates that about 2,098 living Americans carry the first name Avigail. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Avigail today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Avigail births was 2016 (116 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Avigail. 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 Avigail with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Avigail is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 163,372 Americans
Peak year
2016
116 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,504
Tracked since 1968
Census
Avigail in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,769 people with the first name Avigail, which placed it at #8,238 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
#8,238
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,769 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Avigail
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avigail is White at 55.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Avigail 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 Avigail at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.2% · 977
- Hispanic or Latino36.4% · 644
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 63
- Two or more races2.8% · 50
- Black or African American1.9% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Avigail: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Avigail from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 841 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Avigail remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Avigail 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 Avigail during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Avigails live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Avigail, while Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Avigail
The name Avigail originated from the Hebrew language. It is a combination of two words: "Avi," meaning "father," and "gail," meaning "rejoice" or "exult." The name can be translated as "father's joy" or "father rejoices."
In the Old Testament, Avigail is the name of a woman mentioned in the Book of Samuel. She was the wife of Nabal, a wealthy but churlish man from Carmel. Avigail is described as being intelligent and beautiful. When David and his men sought provisions from Nabal, he refused rudely. Avigail intervened and appeased David, preventing bloodshed. Her wisdom and diplomacy were praised, and she later became David's wife after Nabal's death.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Avigail can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the 3rd century BCE. The name appears in various ancient Hebrew texts, including the Talmud and other Rabbinic literature.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Avigail. One of the most famous was Avigail the Scribe, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 6th century CE. She was renowned for her expertise in Jewish law and her involvement in the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud.
Another notable Avigail was Avigail Levi, a 16th-century Jewish poet from Turkey. She was known for her religious poetry and her contribution to the Sephardic Jewish literary tradition.
In the 17th century, Avigail Carra was a prominent Jewish businesswoman and banker in Amsterdam. She played a significant role in the economic and cultural life of the Dutch Jewish community during her time.
Avigail Shekalim was a 19th-century Jewish scholar and author from Russia. She wrote extensively on Jewish law and was recognized for her expertise in Talmudic studies.
Avigail Tuffield (1941-2022) was a British historian and academic. She specialized in the history of the Middle East and made significant contributions to the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
People
Avigail + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Avigail 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
Avigail: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Avigail?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,098 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Avigail 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 163,372 US residents.
Is Avigail a common name?
We classify Avigail as "Rare". It ranks above 93.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,128 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Avigail most popular?
The single biggest year for Avigail was 2016, when 116 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Avigail is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Avigail in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,769 people with the name Avigail, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,238 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 Avigail 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 Avigail?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Avigail appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,771 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Avigail?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avigail is White at 55.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Avigail most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Avigail in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.2% (977 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 Avigail in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Avigail a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Avigail 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 Avigail still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Avigail 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 Avigail 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 have the name Avigail?
See how many people share the name Avigail on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.