Meaning and history
'Ari'el means "lion of God" in Hebrew, from ʾari, "lion," and ʾel, "God." In the Old Testament, it appears as another name for Jerusalem. Shakespeare used Ariel for a spirit in The Tempest (1611), and Alexander Pope gave it to a sylph in The Rape of the Lock (1712); a moon of Uranus was named in honour of Pope's character. As an English given name, it became increasingly common for females during the 1980s, particularly after Disney used it for the title character of The Little Mermaid (1989).