Abel
63,705 people in America carry this name — ranked #776 of 923.
Most Americans carrying it were born this century.
Say it AY buhl
2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part
Phonetic transcription
EY1 B AH0 L — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.
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People counted 63,705 2020 Census
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Rank #776 Familiar
Where Abel comes from and what it means
Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “breath”.
Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.
Abel name popularity by year
57,531 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2015, with 3,250 of them.
Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.
Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.
Middle names that fit Abel
Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.
Better avoided
- Abel Andrew — same opening
- Abel Anthony — same opening
- Abel Alexander — same opening
Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.
On the way up
Abel is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.
Is Abel a boy's or a girl's name?
As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.
Same syllables and stress as Abel
Ends on the same sound
- Michael 3,476,721
- David 2,813,017
- Robert 2,759,339
- William 2,240,114
- Mary 1,768,343
- Daniel 1,607,193
- Joseph 1,600,667
- Richard 1,575,998
- Thomas 1,506,606
- Matthew 1,315,151
Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.
Who carries it today
- White alone (non-Hispanic) — 19.3%
- Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 5.0%
- Hispanic or Latino origin — 71.6%
- Two or more races — 1.8%
- Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.9%
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.5%
Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.
Where in America Abel is thickest on the ground
In New Mexico the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.
- New Mexico ×2.3
- Arizona ×2.3
- Texas ×2.3
- Nevada ×2.2
- California ×1.9
Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.
The same name elsewhere
- Awel Russian
- Avel Russian
Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.
The most common full names
- Abel Johnson ≈ 400 people
- Abel Jones ≈ 300 people
- Abel Garcia ≈ 200 people
- Abel Miller ≈ 200 people
- Abel Davis ≈ 200 people
- Abel Wilson ≈ 100 people
- Abel Anderson ≈ 100 people
- Abel Thomas ≈ 100 people
The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.
Try it How Rare Is It?
Where this name sits between household and almost unheard of.
Where this page gets its numbers
- Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
- Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
- Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.
Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin