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The first name 
Abigail

Abigail is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Abigail is a very popular name!

In the US, Abigail is one of the most popular names ever. In the SmartGenius ranking recently, it has regularly been among the top 10 most common girls names and is currently in place 9. In fact, one out auf 300 girls under the age of 10 is named Abigail. In total, there are currently 392,760 people – children, adults and seniors – named Abigail living in the United States, which is approximately 0.12 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Abigail

What does the name 
Abigail mean?

The first name Abigail is of biblical origin. The name comes from the Hebrew and is composed of ‘āv’ for ‘father’ and ‘gjl’ for ‘joy’ or ‘rejoice’. Thus the name means as much as ‘father’s joy’ or ’cause of joy’.

Interesting facts! Abby is the most common nickname for Abigail. Besides these, there are nicknames like Abster or Gail.

There are quite a few famous people called Abigail

Actress and singer

Abigail Breslin (*1996)
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American actress and musician. In 2007, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of ten. This makes her one of the youngest actresses to be nominated for an Oscar.

Aspiring actress

Abigail Cowen (*1998)
One of the rising stars of recent years is Abigail Cowen. She is known for playing Dorcas in 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Bloom in 'Fate: The Winx Saga'.

An advice column

Dear Abby
In 1956, Pauline Phillips founded the advice column 'Dear Abby' under the pen-name 'Abigail van Buren.' Nowadays, the column is continued by her daughter Jeanne Phillips - who today owns the rights to the pen-name.

A character of the Bible

Abigail (Wife of King David)
Abigail, also known as 'Abigajil', is a person of the bibel. She is the wife of King Nabal and marries King David after his death.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Abigail, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Abigail? Are you also called Abigail? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

HMS Abigail...

was the name of several ships of the Royal Navy.

Abigail...

or Avigayil is an Israeli outpost situated east of the Israeli West Bank barrier and is named after the biblical Abigail, wife of Nabal.

Abigail -
the USA would not be the same without her

The name Abigail is as much a part of the DNA of the USA as the Constitution, the Capitol and the Superbowl: Abigail is one of the few girls names that have been given in the USA every year since the beginning of the name statistics, and thus since 1880. Of course, Abigail hasn't been equally popular in all 143 years - but it's just recently become especially popular. In 2005 it was even ranked number 4 in our SmartGenius name statistics, making it one of the most popular girls names in the entire United States.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Abigail was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Abigail - in 2022 on rank 24 in the SmartGenius name statistics

In 2022 the name Abigail was given a total of 6,260 times in the USA, ranking #24 on the list of the most popular girls names. It was least common in 1921 - back then only 24 expectant parents gave their child the name Abigail, ranking it #1,628 of all female names in our SmartGenius statistics, so there were 1,627 other girl names given more often in 1921.

Abigail -
at home all over the USA, especially popular in New Hampshire

Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Abigail. Because: There are women and girls named Abigail in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Abigail is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular female first names, for example in Nevada, where Abigail ranks on place 30. The greatest chance of meeting Abigail, however, is in New Hampshire, where one in 192 girls and women bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 393 women and girls and in Mississippi, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 837 women and girls for their name before you once get Abigail as an answer.

Abigail has 7 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is the most popular first letter for girls’ names. 11.8% of all common girls’ names in the US start with this letter. The second most common first letter in girls' names is S.

With seven letters, the name Abigail has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 11.8% of all girls' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs over three times as often as all other letters on average. And, by the way, of all the girls' names that begin with the letter A, the name Ashley is the most common.

Other names with 
A, b, i, g, a, i and l

If you take all the letters in the name Abigail – A, b, i, g, a, i and l – and put them together again, you can form another name, such as Abigial.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Abigail

If your name is Abigail and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Abigail

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Abigail, you can simply say:

Apple

Butterfly

Igloo

Goat

Apple

Igloo

Lion

This is how the name Abigail is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Abigail in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Abigail

Abigail

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Abigail

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Abigail is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
B
I
G
A
I
L

Have you ever waved the name Abigail

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
B
I
G
A
I
L

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Abigail sounds like this: