Humanverse

Gable vs Gabriel

American parents have registered 402,627 Gabriels since 1880, against 810 Gables. Gabriel is still ahead, with 6,579 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Gable Gabriel

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

Gabriel 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 1909, when Gable had 5 and Gabriel had 39.

Side by side

  Gable Gabriel
Total US births 810402,627
Most in one year 2313,188
Babies in 2025 186,579
Estimated living today 660385,000
Median age today 2219
Peak year 20092008
Best rank 4,278th boys24th boys
Rank in 2025 5,208th37th
First recorded 19091880
Girls / boys 6 / 8046,849 / 395,778

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 Gables alive today are over 22; half the Gabriels are over 19. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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