Abel

What Abel means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Abel yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note Down from #124 in 2015 to #231 in 2025 in the US Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Abel?

US: Falling: down from #124 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #290 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2015, when 3,245 boys got the name (#124 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 1,120 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,042 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 893 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in RI (2.24 per 1,000 boys), ME (2.08 per 1,000 boys), NM (2.0 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Abel is #231 in the US and #195 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.7% of US babies named Abel were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

If you like Abel

Boys

• Jedidiah#874“beloved of Yahweh”^*
• Levi#12Editor’s note Up from #42 in 2015 to #12 in 2025 in the US. About 1 in 180 US boys in the 2025 records
• Elliot#151Variant of Elliott, meaning “my God is Yahweh”^*
• Eden#544possibly “steppe, garden”^*
• Silas#71Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #71 vs #585 in 2025
• Elliott#160“my God is Yahweh”^*

For a sister

• Lena#279“the Large River”^*
• Ariella#174Form of Ariel, meaning “lion of God”^*
• Elliott#599“my God is Yahweh”^*
• Elsie#123Diminutive of Alison, meaning “of noble kind”^*
• Zara#212“flower”^*
• Delilah#51Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #115 in 2015, #51 in 2025

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Bible, Hebrew, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Abel’s. Rank is US 2025.