Humanverse

Abigail vs Abisai

American parents have registered 413,935 Abigails since 1880, against 1,164 Abisais. Abigail is still ahead, with 4,941 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Abigail against Abisai, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Abigail Abisai

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Abigail has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Abigail had 4,941 and Abisai had 29.

Side by side

  Abigail Abisai
Total US births 413,9351,164
Most in one year 15,95555
Babies in 2025 4,94129
Estimated living today 407,0001,100
Median age today 1915
Peak year 20032004
Best rank 6th girls2,419th boys
Rank in 2025 41st3,757th
First recorded 18801987
Girls / boys 413,263 / 67290 / 1,074

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Abigails alive today are over 19; half the Abisais are over 15. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Abigail and Abisai.