Abigail is a female given name of Hebrew origin. It comes from the Hebrew words 'av' meaning "father" and 'gay' meaning "joy". Therefore, Abigail means "my father is joyful" or "she brings joy to her father".
The name Abigail first appeared in the Bible in the Book of Samuel. It was the name of one of King David's wives, who was known for her intelligence, courage, and kindness. She played a crucial role in preventing her husband from being murdered by his son Absalom.
Abigail has been used as a given name since the Middle Ages but it became particularly popular during the 19th century. Today, Abigail is widely recognized and used around the world, often ranking among the top 500 names for girls in various countries.
In literature, some notable characters named Abigail include Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" and Abigail Breslin, a famous actress known for her role in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". This further contributes to the name's popularity and recognition.
The statistics show a significant increase in the number of girls named Abigail over time, with fluctuations from year to year. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the annual births ranged from single digits to around 20-30, with some peaks like 45 births in 1937 and 56 in 1944. However, starting around the 1970s, there was a substantial rise in Abigails born annually, reaching over 800 in 1978 and continuing to grow steadily throughout the 1980s.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw an especially notable increase, with over 3000 Abigail births recorded in 1989. The trend continued through the 1990s, peaking at nearly 15,000 Abigail births in 2002, and then fluctuating between approximately 10,000 to 14,000 per year until around 2017.
Since then, there has been a decline in the number of Abigails born annually, dropping to just over 5000 in 2022. Overall, from 1880 to 2023, there have been a total of 402,659 girls named Abigail born in the given period.