Popularity of the name Abigail, 1880–2025

Abigail was at its most popular in 2003, when 15,932 girls were given the name: about 1 in 110 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #6. In 2025, 4,941 girls were named Abigail, ranking #41. In all, Social Security counts 413,263 girls named Abigail since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 672 boys named Abigail.

Peak year

2003

Rank in 2003

#6

Babies in 2003

15,932

Rank in 2025

#41

Total since 1880

413,263

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #7 in 2015 to #41 in 2025: 12,422 girls got it in 2015, and 4,941 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 2000s, when 150,926 girls were named Abigail, #6 for the decade. It ranked #589 in the 1880s and #22 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 12 in 1880 (#492), 14 in 1900 (#1,008), 33 in 1920 (#1,375), 48 in 1940 (#1,035), 228 in 1960 (#673), 1,577 in 1980 (#176), 13,094 in 2000 (#14) and 7,917 in 2020 (#12).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 15,932, in 2003. Its best rank in any year was #4, first reached in 2005.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Abigail, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.