Meaning and history
Abigaíl comes from the Hebrew name אֲבִיגָיִל (ʾAviḡayil), meaning “my father is joy,” from אָב (ʾav), “father,” and גִּיל (gil), “joy.” In the Old Testament, it is the name of Nabal’s wife, who became King David’s third wife after Nabal’s death. As an English name, Abigail became common after the Protestant Reformation and was especially popular among the Puritans. Because the biblical Abigail called herself a servant, the name also became slang for a servant in the 17th century, especially after The Scornful Lady (1616) featured a character named Abigail, though it later fell out of fashion and was revived in the 20th century.
20062006: 15,633 births, rank #6
2007: 15,476 births, rank #8
2008: 15,088 births, rank #8
2009: 14,401 births, rank #8
2010: 14,257 births, rank #7
20112011: 13,266 births, rank #7
2012: 12,730 births, rank #7
2013: 12,429 births, rank #8
2014: 12,114 births, rank #8
2015: 12,422 births, rank #7
20162016: 11,796 births, rank #8
2017: 10,645 births, rank #10
2018: 9,879 births, rank #11
2019: 9,196 births, rank #11
2020: 7,917 births, rank #12
20212021: 6,993 births, rank #17
2022: 6,306 births, rank #24
2023: 5,687 births, rank #31
2024: 5,535 births, rank #32
20252025: 4,941 births, rank #41
Abigail has made a dramatic comeback. After first appearing in the US records in 1880, it fell to #996 by 1943, before climbing to #41 in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2003, with 15,932 births.