Gabreil
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength".
Name Census estimates that about 252 living Americans carry the first name Gabreil. It is a predominantly male name (91.4% of registrations). The average person named Gabreil today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gabreil births was 2009 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gabreil. 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.
People living today
252
~ 1 in 1,360,136 Americans
Peak year
2009
19 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,786
Tracked since 1976
Census
Gabreil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 537 people with the first name Gabreil, which placed it at #19,615 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
#19,615
National first-name rank
People counted
537
537 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gabreil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabreil is White at 40.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (35.4%) and Black (16.4%). 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 Gabreil 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 Gabreil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.8% · 219
- Hispanic or Latino35.4% · 190
- Black or African American16.4% · 88
- Two or more races3.7% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Gabreil
Gabreil leans heavily male at 91.4% of total registrations, but 22 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Gabreil as a male name
- Ranked #12,786 in 2018
- 5 male births in 2018
- Peak: 2009 (19 births)
Gabreil as a female name
- Ranked #18,558 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1999 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabreil leans strongly male. 470 people counted with this name were male (87.0%), compared with 70 female bearers (13.0%).
Popularity
Gabreil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gabreil from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 129 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Gabreil remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gabreil 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 Gabreil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gabreils live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gabreil
The name Gabreil has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, with roots dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "geber" meaning "man" or "strong man," and "El" meaning "God." The original Hebrew spelling was גַּבְרִיאֵל (Gavri'el).
Gabreil is a prominent name in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious traditions. In the Hebrew Bible, it refers to an archangel who serves as a messenger from God. The name appears in the Book of Daniel and is also mentioned in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism.
In Christianity, Gabreil is the angel who announced the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke. The name is also found in the Qur'an, where Gabreil is identified as the angel who revealed the divine message to the Prophet Muhammad.
Some of the earliest recorded uses of the name Gabreil can be found in ancient inscriptions and texts from the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. One notable example is a Hebrew inscription from the 6th century BCE, discovered in Israel, which includes the name.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Gabreil. One of the earliest was Gabreil Sionita (1577-1648), a Maronite scholar and linguist from Lebanon, known for his contributions to the study of Arabic and Syriac languages.
Another prominent Gabreil was Gabreil Prosser (c. 1776-1800), a mixed-race enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1800, seeking to overthrow the institution of slavery and establish a free black state.
In the realm of literature, Gabreil García Márquez (1927-2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, celebrated for his works such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.
Gabreil Fauré (1845-1924) was a French composer, organist, and teacher, renowned for his contributions to the Romantic era of classical music, including his Requiem and Pavane.
Gabreil Rossetti (1783-1854) was an Italian poet and scholar, known for his work in reviving interest in the Italian language and literature during the Risorgimento period.
People
Gabreil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gabreil as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gabreil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gabreil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 252 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gabreil 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 1,360,136 US residents.
Is Gabreil a common name?
We classify Gabreil as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 257 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gabreil most popular?
The single biggest year for Gabreil was 2009, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gabreil is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gabreil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 537 people with the name Gabreil, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,615 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 Gabreil 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 Gabreil?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabreil leans strongly male. 470 people counted with this name were male (87.0%), compared with 70 female bearers (13.0%). 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 Gabreil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabreil is White at 40.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (35.4%) and Black (16.4%). 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 Gabreil most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gabreil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.8% (219 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 Gabreil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gabreil a male name?
Yes, 91.4% of people registered as Gabreil 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 Gabreil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gabreil 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 Gabreil 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 Gabreil as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.