Name Awesome

Abe

#2,207 in 2025Boys' name

Father of + multitude of, through Abraham

Abe has been given to 9,694 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #2,207 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1917, with 280 recorded.

Babies named Abe, 2025

1 in 51,800

Abe over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Abe: meaning, origin, and history

Father of + multitude of, through Abraham

Hebrew and English

What Abe means

Abe belongs to the name family reached through Abe → Abraham. Its meaning is “father of + multitude of”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

A shortening from Abraham. In the slang sense for money, refers to the picture of Abraham Lincoln on the currency.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Abe (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Abe is used in English, Cebuano, Dutch and Scots. Its origins include Hebrew and English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Abraham, Abelardo and Albert.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Abe is pronounced /eɪb/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,694 boys were recorded with the name Abe between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 280 in 1917; its best national rank was #215 in 1898.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,436 in 2020 to #2,207 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,846 in 2015 to #2,207 in 2025.

How common is Abe?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 51,800
64 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 26,700
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,207
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
35,906 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Abe sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 35,906 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Abe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Abes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Abe was born before 1927 — so the typical Abe is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
21.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
14.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,304
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (2,099).

Is Abe rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+212
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+229
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−361
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.80×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
22.9%
Peak was 1917 (280)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#215
1898

Where Abe is used

Across 2016–2025, Abe was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 6,250 boys, against 1 in 26,405 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

016 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 6,250
  2. 2New Jersey1 in 6,667
  3. 3Iowa1 in 9,091
  4. 4Ohio1 in 33,333
  5. 5Illinois1 in 50,000
  6. 6Indiana1 in 50,000
  7. 7Minnesota1 in 50,000
  8. 8California1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Abe around the world

Where Abe ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2017–2019
    #701
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,134
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1976–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Abe

People whose public names include Abe, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Abe by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,207
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 229
Best rank ever
#215
1898
Peak year
1917
280 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,694
Count in 2025
64

Names similar to Abe

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AbelGabeAbelardoAbemAbeerAbedBernabeAbenBabeAbelinoJabeCabeAbenezerKabeAbellAbeyAbertMccabeClabeAbednegoAberhamAbealIgabeSabe

Names with a curve like Abe

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Abe, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

FerdinandAlphonseGustavGustaveOmerNewtonBusterAloysiusSolCyrilAdolphIsadore

Sibling names for Abe

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Abe

Top names of 1917, Abe's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1898More old man namesBoys' names starting with AShort Boy NamesShort Dutch Boy Names