Entry № 67 · Hebrew origin

Abigail Abigail — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ AB-ih-gayl /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"My father's joy (biblical Abigail; Abigail Adams, US First Lady)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Hebrew)

A name that means "my father's joy (biblical abigail; abigail adams, us first lady)".

Abigail is from the Hebrew Avigayil ("my father's joy"). The biblical Abigail — wife of the churlish Nabal of Carmel and, after his death, of King David (1 Samuel 25); her intercession with David is among the most diplomatic moments in the Hebrew Bible.

My father's joy.

The name in its native script.

אֲבִיגַיִל
Transliteration
Avigayil
Pronunciation
/ ˈæb.ɪ.ɡeɪl /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Abigail stands.

Abigail does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Abigails before her.

Real people
Abigail Adams
US First Lady.
1744 – 1818
Abigail Breslin
American Oscar-nominated actress.
born 1996
In fiction
Abigail
Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
1953

Names connected to Abigail.

The number behind Abigail.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Abigail reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.