Gabriel

347,542 people in America carry this name — ranked #144 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it GAYB ree uhl

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

G EY1 B R IY0 AH0 L — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

People counted 347,542 2020 Census
Per 100,000 115.1 about 1 in 954 people
As a surname 26,489 ranked #1,302 the other way round

What Gabriel means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “hero of God”.

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.

How often Gabriel has been given

367,834 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2008, with 13,183 of them.

25k 33k 57k 122k 106k

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s.

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 for Gabriel

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

Gabriel George — same opening
Gabriel Larry — runs together
Gabriel Luis — runs together

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

Gabriel is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Gabriel used for boys or for girls?

98.2% men

6,275 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The states where Gabriel is most common

In New Mexico the name is given 2.4 times as often as it is across the country.

New Mexico ×2.4
Arizona ×1.9
Alaska ×1.7
Nevada ×1.6
Florida ×1.4

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 abroad

Gab English
Gabe Bav
Gavre Ill
Gavra Slav
Gabor Hungarian
Gavril Ill
Gaberl Bav
Gabela Swiss
Gavrilo Ill
Gavrila Slav
Gavriil Russian
Gabriele German
Gabriello Italian
Gabrielle French

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.

Who has this name today

White alone (non-Hispanic) — 37.2%
Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 6.1%
Hispanic or Latino origin — 49.3%
Two or more races — 4.4%
Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.8%

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.

Names built the same way as Gabriel

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

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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