How popular is the baby name Gabriel in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Gabriel.

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Popularity of the baby name Gabriel


Posts that mention the name Gabriel

Popular baby names in Belgium, 2014

Flag of Belgium
Flag of Belgium

According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names in 2014 were Emma and Louis.

Here are Belgium’s top 10 baby names:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma, 653 baby girls
2. Louise, 584
3. Elise, 480
4. Olivia, 459
5. Lina, 383
6. Marie, 376
7. Lucie, 359
8. Ella, 348
9. Alice, 347 (tie)
10. Juliette, 347 (tie)		1. Louis, 622 baby boys
2. Lucas, 619
3. Arthur, 610
4. Adam, 575
5. Noah, 562
6. Liam, 513
7. Mohamed, 468
8. Nathan, 455
9. Jules, 442
10. Mathis, 428

In the girls’ top 10, Ella and Alice replaced Léa and Mila.

The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.

But there’s more! Like Switzerland, Belgium breaks name data down by region. So let’s also check out the top names within each region.

About 58% of Belgians live in the northern region, Flanders, where the official language is Dutch. Here are the top 10 baby names in Flanders:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma, 381 baby girls
2. Elise, 351
3. Louise, 344
4. Ella, 329
5. Marie, 309
6. Noor, 269
7. Lena, 251
8. Julie, 246
9. Lotte, 231
10. Mila, 227		1. Lucas, 329 baby boys
2. Liam, 316
3. Vince, 309
4. Arthur, 307
5. Noah, 300
6. Finn, 298
7. Mathis, 276
8. Louis, 274
9. Seppe, 248
10. Jules, 244 (tie)
10. Stan, 244 (tie)

In the girls’ top 10, Lena replaced Fien (short for Jozefien, the Dutch form of Josephine).

In the boys’ top 10, Seppe and Jules replaced Lars and Alexander.

I would have guessed that Seppe was a diminutive of Joseph (akin to the German name Sepp). According to a Behind the Name contributor, though, Seppe is a West Frisian name that can be traced back to Sibe, a “Frisian short form of masculine names that have sigu or sigis for a first element” and a second element begins with the letter b (e.g., Sibald, Sibert).

About 32% of Belgians live in the southern region, Wallonia, where the official language is French (and, in some areas, German). Here are the top 10 baby names for Wallonia:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Léa, 263 baby girls
2. Lucie, 244
3. Chloé, 218
4. Zoé, 216
5. Emma, 208
6. Louise, 200
7. Alice, 200
8. Camille, 198
9. Olivia, 191
10. Jade, 154		1. Hugo, 314 baby boys
2. Louis, 308
3. Gabriel, 255
4. Arthur, 245
5. Nathan, 242
6. Théo, 235
7. Lucas, 225
8. Ethan, 213
9. Noah, 208
10. Tom, 195

In the girls’ top 10, Jade replaced Manon.

The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.

About 10% of Belgians live in the Brussels Capital Region, where the official languages are Dutch and French. Here are the top top 10 baby names for Brussels:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Lina, 119 baby girls
2. Aya, 84
3. Sarah, 78
4. Sofia, 77
5. Nour, 70
6. Yasmine, 67
7. Malak, 66
8. Emma, 64
9. Sara, 62
10. Anna, 56		1. Adam, 233 baby boys
2. Mohamed, 195
3. Rayan, 94
4. Gabriel, 82
5. David, 81
6. Imran, 69
7. Amir, 66
8. Lucas, 65 (tie)
9. Youssef, 65 (tie)
10. Yanis, 59

In the girls’ top 10, Malak and Anna replaced Ines and Louise. In the boy’s top 10, Amir, Lucas and Yanis replaced Ayoub, Nathan and Anas.

Morocco World News notes that “heavy immigration from Morocco and other Muslim countries has left its traces, as Mohamed has been the most common male name in the Brussels Region recently.” Mohamed was the #1 boy name in Brussels from the late 1990s until 2011, in fact. And the same wave of immigration has given a big boost to many other Arabic names (Amir, Bilal, Hamza, Imran, Malak, Nour, Rayan, Yousra, etc.) within the last few decades.

Sources: Steeds meer verschillende voornamen, maar Emma en Louis houden stand, Lina, Aya, and Mohamed Among Most Popular Baby Names in Brussels

Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)

Popular baby names in Switzerland, 2014

Flag of Switzerland
Flag of Switzerland

According to data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the country’s most popular baby names overall in 2014 were Emma and Noah.

But the #1 names within each language group don’t quite match up with these overall #1 names, so here are Switzerland’s top baby names of 2014 broken down by language group:

French

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma (163 baby girls)
2. Eva (98)
3. Léa (96)
4. Camille (85)
5. Zoé (84)
6. Alice (83)
7. Chloé (82)
8. Alicia (74)		1. Gabriel (153 baby boys)
2. Liam (128)
3. Lucas (113)
4. Ethan (107)
5. Nathan (104)
6. Noah (102)
7. Louis (97)
8. Luca (94)

Ethan jumped from 12th to 4th, and Camille continues to rise (8th to 4th).

German

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Mia (312 baby girls)
2. Lara (294)
3. Emma (293)
4. Laura (277)
5. Anna (271)
6. Sara (245)
7. Lea (244)
8. Leonie (234)		1. Noah (338 baby boys)
2. Leon (313)
3. Luca (288)
4. Levin (280)
5. David (265)
6. Elias (259) – tie
6. Julian (259) – tie
8. Tim (246)

Elias jumped from 14th to 6th, and Anna from 12th to 5th.

Italian

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Giulia (34 baby girls)
2. Sofia (33)
3. Emma (28)
4. Alice (26)
5. Emily (24) – tie
5. Mia (24) – tie
7. Aurora (23) – tie
7. Noemi (23) – tie		1. Leonardo (40 baby boys)
1. Gabriel (37)
3. Liam (31)
4. Alessandro (24)
5. Lorenzo (23)
6. Enea (20)
7. Matteo (19) – tie
7. Noah (19) – tie

Enea jumped from 19th to 6th, and Aurora from 12th to 7th.

Romansh

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Luana
2. Léonie		1. Andrin
2. Nino

According to a Behind the Name contributor, Andrin is a “Romansh form of Heinrich (Henry), originally from the Engadine valley in southeast Switzerland.”

Finally, here are Switzerland’s top baby names for 2013, if you’d like to compare.

Sources: The Swiss name that’s popular across all languages – 2014 baby names, Swiss Statistics – The most popular first names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Switzerland (public domain)

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. Non-Biblical

How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?

This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.

First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.

For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. non-Biblical.
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
  • Biblical names: Adam, Alexander, Andrew, Austin (via Augustus), Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elijah, Ethan, Jack (via John), Jackson (via John), Jacob, James, Jason, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Justin (via Justus), Lucas, Mark, Matthew, Michael, Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Thomas, Timothy, Zachary
  • Non-Biblical names: Aiden, Albert, Anthony, Arthur, Billy, Brandon, Brian, Charles, Christopher, Dennis, Donald, Dylan, Edward, Eric, Frank, Gary, George, Harold, Harry, Henry, Jayden, Jeffrey, Kenneth, Kevin, Larry, Liam, Logan, Louis, Mason, Raymond, Richard, Robert, Ronald, Ryan, Scott, Tyler, Walter, William
  • Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)

It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.

Here are the year-by-year tallies:

YearTop 20 names
given to…		# Biblical# Non-Biblical
191440% of baby boys5 (25%)15 (75%)
192443% of baby boys6 (30%)14 (70%)
193443% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
194447% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
195446% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
196442% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
197438% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
198436% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
199427% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
200419% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
201414% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)

But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.

By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:

Biblical names (49)Non-Biblical names (51)
Noah, Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James, Daniel, Elijah, Benjamin, Matthew, Jackson (via John), David, Lucas, Joseph, Andrew, Samuel, Gabriel, Joshua, John, Luke, Isaac, Caleb, Nathan, Jack (via John), Jonathan, Levi, Jaxon (via John), Julian (via Julius), Isaiah, Eli, Aaron, Thomas, Jordan, Jeremiah, Nicholas, Evan, Josiah, Austin (via Augustus), Jace (via Jason), Jason, Jose, Ian, Adam, Zachary, Jaxson (via John), Asher, Nathaniel, Justin (via Justus), JuanLiam, Mason, William, Logan, Aiden, Jayden, Anthony, Carter, Dylan, Christopher, Oliver, Henry, Sebastian, Owen, Ryan, Wyatt, Hunter, Christian, Landon, Charles, Connor, Cameron, Adrian, Gavin, Robert, Brayden, Grayson, Colton, Angel, Dominic, Kevin, Brandon, Tyler, Parker, Ayden, Chase, Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Blake, Cooper, Lincoln, Xavier, Bentley, Kayden, Carson, Brody, Ryder, Leo, Luis, Camden

(Christian, Angel, Xavier, Dominic…all technically non-Biblical, despite having strong ties to Christianity.)

50%-50% isn’t quite as extreme as 70%-30%, but it’s still noticeably more Biblical than 1914’s 25%-75%.

Do any of these results surprise you?

Popular baby names in the United States, 2014

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

Emma and Noah were the most popular baby names in the United States in 2014.

Here’s the top 10:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma, 20799 baby girls
2. Olivia, 19674
3. Sophia, 18490
4. Isabella, 16950
5. Ava, 15586
6. Mia, 13442
7. Emily, 12562
8. Abigail, 11985
9. Madison, 10247
10. Charlotte, 10048		1. Noah, 19144 baby boys
2. Liam, 18342
3. Mason, 17092
4. Jacob, 16712
5. William, 16687
6. Ethan, 15619
7. Michael, 15323
8. Alexander, 15293
9. James, 14301
10. Daniel, 13829

Noah remained the #1 boy name, and Emma replaced Sophia as the #1 girl name.

On the girls’ side, Charlotte replaced Elizabeth (now 14th). Elizabeth hasn’t dipped this low since the late 1970s.

On the boys’ side, James replaced Jayden (now 15th). James was last in the top 10 in the early 1990s.

Here’s the rest of the top 50:

Girl NamesBoy Names
11. Harper, 9564
12. Sofia, 9542
13. Avery, 9517
14. Elizabeth, 9492
15. Amelia, 8727
16. Evelyn, 8692
17. Ella, 8489
18. Chloe, 8469
19. Victoria, 7955
20. Aubrey, 7589
21. Grace, 7554
22. Zoey, 7358
23. Natalie, 7061
24. Addison, 6950
25. Lillian, 6869
26. Brooklyn, 6767
27. Lily, 6727
28. Hannah, 6512
29. Layla, 6428
30. Scarlett, 5965
31. Aria, 5893
32. Zoe, 5828
33. Samantha, 5680
34. Anna, 5639
35. Leah, 5563
36. Audrey, 5531
37. Ariana, 5461
38. Allison, 5440
39. Savannah, 5433
40. Arianna, 5240
41. Camila, 5194
42. Penelope, 5062
43. Gabriella, 5051
44. Claire, 4991
45. Aaliyah, 4850
46. Sadie, 4823
47. Riley, 4761
48. Skylar, 4732
49. Nora, 4708
50. Sarah, 4647		11. Elijah, 13694
12. Benjamin, 13687
13. Logan, 13579
14. Aiden, 13296
15. Jayden, 12878
16. Matthew, 12809
17. Jackson, 12121
18. David, 12078
19. Lucas, 12078
20. Joseph, 11995
21. Anthony, 11490
22. Andrew, 11069
23. Samuel, 10859
24. Gabriel, 10826
25. Joshua, 10764
26. John, 10600
27. Carter, 10599
28. Luke, 10431
29. Dylan, 10350
30. Christopher, 10278
31. Isaac, 9868
32. Oliver, 9365
33. Henry, 9350
34. Sebastian, 9237
35. Caleb, 9143
36. Owen, 9100
37. Ryan, 9026
38. Nathan, 8902
39. Wyatt, 8812
40. Hunter, 8759
41. Jack, 8685
42. Christian, 8388
43. Landon, 8180
44. Jonathan, 8035
45. Levi, 7958
46. Jaxon, 7635
47. Julian, 7611
48. Isaiah, 7530
49. Eli, 7428
50. Aaron, 7334

On the girls’ side, Ariana, Penelope, Skylar and Nora (previously ranked 54th, 56th, 73rd and 82nd) are new to the top 50. They replaced Hailey, Kaylee, Alexis and Nevaeh (now ranked 51st, 52nd, 64th and 65th).

On the boys’s side, Oliver and Aaron (previously ranked 52nd and 51st) are new to the top 50. They replaced Brayden and Gavin (now ranked 62nd and 60th).

The biggest jumps within the top 50 were Scarlett (+12 spots), Sebastian (+11) and Aria (+9).

The biggest drops within the top 50 were Aaliyah (-10), Christian (-7), Ryan (-7) and Nathan (-7).

Here’s more from the SSA’s news release:

Aranza jumped an amazing 3,625 spots on the girls’ side to number 607, from number 4,232 in 2013. The Latin soap opera “Por siempre mi amor” was aired on Univision from 2013 to 2015.  The show featured a young lead character named Aranza, and obviously had its effect on naming trends last year.

Bode raced ahead 645 spots, from number 1,428 in 2013 to number 783 in 2014.  This might have had something to do with the Winter Olympics in early 2014, where Bode Miller continued his outstanding alpine skiing career by collecting his sixth Olympic medal.  Not only is he the most successful male American alpine skier of all time, he is considered by many to be an American hero.

The second fastest riser for boys was Axl, a nod to both rock legend Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses and Axl Jack Duhamel, son of Stacy Ann “Fergie” Ferguson and Josh Duhamel.  For girls, Montserrat, the lead character in a very popular Latin soap opera, was number two, joined by another Monserrat (spelled just one letter differently) at number three.  

More posts on the new names coming soon!

U.S. Baby Names 2014: Most popular names, Top girl-name debuts, Top boy-name debuts, Biggest girl-name changes, Biggest boy-name changes, Top first letters, Top lengths

Sources: SSA, Noah and Emma Top Social Security’s List of Most Popular Baby Names for 2014 – SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)