Gabriela
A feminine name of Spanish and Portuguese origin meaning "God is my strength".
Name Census estimates that about 82,908 living Americans carry the first name Gabriela. It sits at #298 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gabriela today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gabriela births was 2003 (3,368 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gabriela. 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 Gabriela with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Gabriela is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 371 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
83K
~ 1 in 4,134 Americans
Peak year
2003
3,368 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2007 SSA rank
#298
Tracked since 1903
Census
Gabriela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 112,857 people with the first name Gabriela, which placed it at #500 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
#500
National first-name rank
People counted
113K
112,857 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
37.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
86.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gabriela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabriela is Hispanic at 86.6%. The next largest groups are White (11.1%) and Black (0.9%). 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 Gabriela 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 Gabriela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino86.6% · 97,789
- White11.1% · 12,515
- Black or African American0.9% · 1,037
- Two or more races0.6% · 731
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 666
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 119
Gender
Gender distribution for Gabriela
Out of the 85,577 babies given the name Gabriela since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Gabriela as a male name
- Ranked #6,780 in 2007
- 12 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1992 (26 births)
Gabriela as a female name
- Ranked #298 in 2024
- 1,059 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (3,361 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabriela appears almost entirely female. Of the 112,854 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Gabriela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gabriela from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 28,606 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
Gabriela 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 Gabriela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gabrielas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Gabriela, while Wyoming, West Virginia, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,811 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gabriela
The name Gabriela is a feminine form of the Hebrew name Gabriel, which means "God is my strength" or "warrior of God." It originated in the Middle Ages, derived from the biblical archangel Gabriel who delivered important messages to Mary and others in the Old and New Testaments.
Gabriela first appeared as a name in medieval Europe, particularly in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Its early roots can be traced back to the Latin name Gabriela, which was a Latinized version of the Hebrew Gabriel.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gabriela can be found in the 13th century Spanish epic poem, El Cantar de Mio Cid, where a character named Gabriela is mentioned. In the 14th century, there was a religious figure named Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean poet and educator who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Gabriela. One of the most famous was Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), the aforementioned Chilean poet and educator who was the first Latin American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Another prominent Gabriela was Gabriela Sabatini (born 1970), an Argentine former professional tennis player who won several Grand Slam titles and was once ranked World No. 3 in singles.
In the world of literature, Gabriela Garcia Marquez (born 1972) is a Colombian-American author known for her novels "Of Women and Salt" and "Talia."
Gabriela Cowperthwaite (born 1970) is an American filmmaker best known for directing the documentary "Blackfish," which explored the treatment of orcas in captivity.
Gabriela Montero (born 1970) is a Venezuelan classical pianist and composer, renowned for her improvisational skills and innovative approach to performance.
While its origins can be traced back to biblical times, the name Gabriela has endured throughout the centuries and has been embraced by diverse cultures, particularly in Latin America and Europe, where it continues to be a popular choice.
People
Gabriela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gabriela as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gabriela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gabriela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 82,908 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gabriela 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 4,134 US residents.
Is Gabriela a common name?
We classify Gabriela as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 85,577 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gabriela most popular?
The single biggest year for Gabriela was 2003, when 3,368 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gabriela is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gabriela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 112,857 people with the name Gabriela, or 37.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #500 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 Gabriela 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 Gabriela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabriela appears almost entirely female. Of the 112,854 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Gabriela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabriela is Hispanic at 86.6%. The next largest groups are White (11.1%) and Black (0.9%). 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 Gabriela most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Gabriela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.6% (97,789 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 Gabriela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gabriela a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Gabriela 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 Gabriela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gabriela 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 Gabriela 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 Gabriela as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Gabriela on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.