Abigail
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "father's joy".
Roughly 398,976 people in the United States go by the first name Abigail, which ranks #32 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Abigail today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abigail births was 2003 (15,955 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Henry (395,153).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abigail. 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 Abigail with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Abigail is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 672 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
399K
~ 1 in 859 Americans
Peak year
2003
15,955 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2023 SSA rank
#32
Tracked since 1880
Census
Abigail in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 342,494 people with the first name Abigail, which placed it at #146 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
#146
National first-name rank
People counted
342K
342,494 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
113.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abigail
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abigail is White at 70.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Abigail 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 Abigail at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.8% · 242,395
- Hispanic or Latino18.3% · 62,698
- Two or more races4.1% · 13,885
- Black or African American3.4% · 11,726
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 10,478
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1,312
Gender
Gender distribution for Abigail
Out of the 408,907 babies given the name Abigail since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Abigail as a male name
- Ranked #8,261 in 2023
- 9 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2004 (89 births)
Abigail as a female name
- Ranked #32 in 2024
- 5,499 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (15,932 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abigail appears almost entirely female. Of the 342,490 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Abigail: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abigail from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 151,182 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
Abigail 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 Abigail during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abigails live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Abigail, while Wyoming, Hawaii, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,944 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abigail
The name Abigail has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is derived from the Hebrew phrase "abiy ga'il," which translates to "father's joy" or "source of joy." The name can be traced back to the Old Testament of the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a wise and virtuous woman who becomes the wife of David after the death of her first husband, Nabal.
The earliest recorded use of the name Abigail dates back to the 11th century BCE, when it appeared in the biblical Book of Samuel. In this text, Abigail is described as a woman of great intelligence and diplomacy, who intervenes to prevent bloodshed between her husband and David's men.
Throughout history, the name Abigail has been borne by several notable figures. One of the earliest was Abigail Adams (1744-1818), the wife of the second US President, John Adams. She was a strong advocate for women's rights and played a significant role in shaping the early political landscape of the United States.
Another famous Abigail was Abigail Williams (1680-1697), a key accuser during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693. Her allegations against several women in Salem Village, Massachusetts, led to their execution for alleged witchcraft.
In the realm of literature, Abigail Hill is a character in the novel "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722. She is portrayed as a cunning and manipulative woman who uses her charm to advance her social standing.
The name Abigail also has a connection to the American Revolution. Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818), wife of John Adams, was a prominent figure who advocated for women's rights and played a crucial role in shaping the early political landscape of the United States.
In more recent times, Abigail Van Buren (1918-2013), whose real name was Pauline Esther Friedman, was a renowned advice columnist who wrote the "Dear Abby" column for over five decades, offering guidance to millions of readers on a wide range of personal and social issues.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Abigail
People
Abigail + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abigail 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
Abigail: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abigail?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 398,976 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abigail 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 859 US residents.
Is Abigail a common name?
We classify Abigail as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 408,907 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abigail most popular?
The single biggest year for Abigail was 2003, when 15,955 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abigail is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abigail in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 342,494 people with the name Abigail, or 113.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #146 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 Abigail 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 Abigail?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abigail appears almost entirely female. Of the 342,490 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 Abigail?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abigail is White at 70.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Abigail most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Abigail in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.8% (242,395 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 Abigail in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abigail a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Abigail 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 Abigail still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abigail 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 Abigail 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 Abigail as a first name?
You can see how many people share the name Abigail on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.