Abijah
A Hebrew name meaning "The LORD is my father."
Name Census estimates that about 404 living Americans carry the first name Abijah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Abijah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abijah births was 2013 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abijah. 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 Abijah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
404
~ 1 in 848,402 Americans
Peak year
2013
26 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,819
Tracked since 1977
Census
Abijah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 415 people with the first name Abijah, which placed it at #23,539 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
#23,539
National first-name rank
People counted
415
415 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abijah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abijah is Black at 46.7%. The next largest groups are White (25.3%) and Hispanic (11.6%). 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 Abijah 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 Abijah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.7% · 194
- White25.3% · 105
- Hispanic or Latino11.6% · 48
- Two or more races10.1% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Abijah
Abijah leans heavily male at 83.1% of total registrations, but 69 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Abijah as a male name
- Ranked #6,819 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (18 births)
Abijah as a female name
- Ranked #15,190 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Abijah on both sides of the split. Of the 419 people counted with this name, 299 were male (71.4%) and 120 were female (28.6%).
Popularity
Abijah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abijah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 162 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abijah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abijah 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 Abijah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abijah
The given name Abijah has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is a biblical name derived from the Hebrew words "Av" meaning "father" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the name of God, YHWH. The name can be translated to mean "my father is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is my father."
Abijah is found in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically in the Books of Chronicles and Kings. It was the name of several prominent figures in ancient Israel, including a king of Judah. Abijah reigned for three years in the late 10th century BCE, succeeding his father Rehoboam as the ruler of the Kingdom of Judah.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abijah dates back to the 9th century BCE. It was the name of a priest mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, who was among those who signed a covenant with God during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Abijah. In the 17th century, Abijah Savages was an English minister and author who wrote extensively on theological subjects. He was born in 1619 and died in 1672.
In the 18th century, Abijah Ingraham was an American soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was born in 1734 and died in 1805.
Abijah Cheever was an American educator and author who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born in 1667 and died in 1708. Cheever was known for his popular textbook, "Accidence: A Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue."
Abijah Bigelow was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He was born in 1775 and died in 1860.
In the 19th century, Abijah Gilbert was an American manufacturer and inventor who patented several inventions related to the manufacturing of cotton and wool. He was born in 1806 and died in 1881.
People
Abijah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abijah 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
Abijah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abijah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 404 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abijah 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 848,402 US residents.
Is Abijah a common name?
We classify Abijah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 409 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abijah most popular?
The single biggest year for Abijah was 2013, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abijah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abijah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 415 people with the name Abijah, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,539 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 Abijah 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 Abijah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Abijah on both sides of the split. Of the 419 people counted with this name, 299 were male (71.4%) and 120 were female (28.6%). 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 Abijah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abijah is Black at 46.7%. The next largest groups are White (25.3%) and Hispanic (11.6%). 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 Abijah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abijah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.7% (194 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 Abijah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abijah a male name?
Yes, 83.1% of people registered as Abijah 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 Abijah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abijah 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 Abijah 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 Abijah?
Find out how many Americans are named Abijah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.