Abel
A masculine given name derived from Hebrew meaning "breath" or "son".
Name Census estimates that about 59,708 living Americans carry the first name Abel. It sits at #220 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abel today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abel births was 2015 (3,254 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abel. 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 Abel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Abel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 156 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
60K
~ 1 in 5,741 Americans
Peak year
2015
3,254 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#220
Tracked since 1880
Census
Abel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 63,703 people with the first name Abel, which placed it at #776 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
#776
National first-name rank
People counted
64K
63,703 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
21.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abel is Hispanic at 71.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.3%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Abel 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 Abel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.6% · 45,612
- White19.3% · 12,265
- Black or African American5.0% · 3,173
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 1,190
- Two or more races1.8% · 1,118
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 345
Gender
Gender distribution for Abel
Out of the 64,639 babies given the name Abel since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Abel as a male name
- Ranked #220 in 2024
- 1,627 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (3,244 births)
Abel as a female name
- Ranked #11,077 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abel appears almost entirely male. Of the 63,705 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Abel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 23,587 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abel 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 Abel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Abel, while Vermont, Delaware, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,187 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abel
The name Abel has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is derived from the Hebrew word "hevel" which means "breath" or "vapor". The name is believed to have originated in the Middle East region during ancient times.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abel is found in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where it is the name given to the second son of Adam and Eve. According to the biblical account, Abel was a shepherd who was killed by his brother Cain out of jealousy.
In the Christian tradition, Abel is regarded as the first martyr and a symbol of innocence and righteousness. The name has been popular among Christians throughout history, particularly in Europe and the Americas.
Some notable individuals named Abel throughout history include:
1. Abel the Righteous (circa 4000 BC), the biblical figure and the second son of Adam and Eve.
2. Abel Remusat (1788-1832), a French sinologist and pioneering scholar of Chinese language and culture.
3. Abel Gance (1889-1981), a prominent French film director, actor, and producer, best known for his epic silent film "Napoléon".
4. Abel Sanchez (1899-1971), a Mexican boxer and former world bantamweight champion.
5. Abel Muzorewa (1925-2010), a Zimbabwean politician and former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
The name Abel has been used across various cultures and languages, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. In English, it is often spelled as "Abel" or "Abell". In Spanish, it is spelled "Abel" or "Abél". In French, it is spelled "Abel" or "Abèle". In German, it is spelled "Abel" or "Abell".
Notable bearers
Famous people named Abel
People
Abel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abel 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
Abel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59,708 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abel 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 5,741 US residents.
Is Abel a common name?
We classify Abel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 64,639 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abel most popular?
The single biggest year for Abel was 2015, when 3,254 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abel is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 63,703 people with the name Abel, or 21.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #776 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 Abel 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 Abel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abel appears almost entirely male. Of the 63,705 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Abel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abel is Hispanic at 71.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.3%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Abel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Abel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.6% (45,612 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 Abel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abel a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Abel in the SSA data are male. 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 Abel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abel 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 Abel 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 share the name Abel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.