Abel

Abel is the 2,011th most common surname in the United States, shared by 17,596 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 17,000.

By the numbers

People: 17,596
Rank: 2,011th
How common: 1 in 17,000
Per 100,000: 5.9

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From Middle English Abel, from Old English Ābel, from Latin Abel, from Ancient Greek Ἅβελ, from Biblical Hebrew הֶבֶל (“Abel”), possibly from the homonymous word הֶבֶל (“breath, vapor; vanity”) or from Akkadian 𒌉𒍑 (“son”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Abel described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 85.1%
Black, not Hispanic 5.8%
Hispanic or Latino 3.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.1%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Abel

Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829)Norwegian mathematician
Rudolf Abel (1903–1971)Soviet intelligence officer
Othenio Abel (1875–1946)Austrian botanist, paleontologist and evolutionary biologist
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787)German composer
Jake Abel (born 1987)American television actor
Frederick Abel (1827–1902)British chemist 1827-1902
Clarke Abel (1780–1826)British surgeon and naturalist
Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832)French sinologist

People named Abel with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Abel

Also a first name

Abel has been given to 66,198 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2015. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.