Gabriel
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength".
Roughly 380,535 people in the United States go by the first name Gabriel, which ranks #43 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly male name (98.3% of registrations). The average person named Gabriel today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gabriel births was 2008 (13,187 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Frank (379,098).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gabriel. 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 Gabriel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Gabriel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 6,839 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
381K
~ 1 in 901 Americans
Peak year
2008
13,187 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#43
Tracked since 1880
Census
Gabriel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 347,543 people with the first name Gabriel, which placed it at #144 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
#144
National first-name rank
People counted
348K
347,543 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
115.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gabriel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabriel is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (37.2%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Gabriel 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 Gabriel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.3% · 171,252
- White37.2% · 129,326
- Black or African American6.1% · 21,171
- Two or more races4.4% · 15,365
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 7,817
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2,612
Gender
Gender distribution for Gabriel
Gabriel leans heavily male at 98.3% of total registrations, but 6,839 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Gabriel as a male name
- Ranked #43 in 2024
- 6,379 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (13,040 births)
Gabriel as a female name
- Ranked #5,482 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (293 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabriel leans strongly male. 341,267 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 6,275 female bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Gabriel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gabriel 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 121,789 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
Gabriel 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 Gabriel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gabriels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Gabriel, while Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,647 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gabriel
The name Gabriel is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name "Gavri'el," which means "God is my strength." It is a combination of the Hebrew words "gever," meaning "man" or "strong," and "El," referring to God.
The name has been used for centuries, with its earliest known appearance in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, where Gabriel is depicted as an archangel who interprets visions for the prophet Daniel. The name is also mentioned in the New Testament, where Gabriel is believed to have announced the birth of Jesus Christ to the Virgin Mary.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Gabriel was Gabriel Sionita, a 16th-century Maronite scholar and linguist born in Lebanon around 1577. He was known for his work in translating ancient texts from Arabic, Syriac, and other Semitic languages into Latin.
Another notable historical figure with the name Gabriel was Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon, a 16th-century French diplomat and military leader who served as the ambassador of France to the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1553.
In the 17th century, Gabriel Naudé, born in 1600, was a French scholar and librarian who is widely regarded as the founder of modern library science. He established the Bibliothèque Mazarine, one of the first public libraries in Europe.
During the 18th century, Gabriel Fahrenheit, a German physicist and engineer born in 1686, made significant contributions to the development of the mercury thermometer and introduced the temperature scale that bears his name, the Fahrenheit scale.
In the 19th century, Gabriel Fauré, a French composer and organist born in 1845, is renowned for his works in various genres, including chamber music, piano compositions, and art songs. His Requiem and Pavane are among his most celebrated compositions.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Gabriel, demonstrating its enduring presence and cultural significance across various regions and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gabriel
People
Gabriel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gabriel 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
Gabriel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gabriel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 380,535 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gabriel 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 901 US residents.
Is Gabriel a common name?
We classify Gabriel 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, 395,945 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gabriel most popular?
The single biggest year for Gabriel was 2008, when 13,187 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gabriel 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 Gabriel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 347,543 people with the name Gabriel, or 115.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #144 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 Gabriel 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 Gabriel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gabriel leans strongly male. 341,267 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 6,275 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Gabriel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gabriel is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (37.2%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Gabriel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Gabriel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (171,252 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 Gabriel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gabriel a male name?
Yes, 98.3% of people registered as Gabriel 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 Gabriel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gabriel 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 Gabriel 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 are named Gabriel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.