Ab
Ab was given to 5 boys in 2025, #12,013 among boys’ names; 380 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ab by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ab mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ab is “a diminutive of the male given name Abner, from Hebrew, occasionally used as a formal given name.”
Short form of Abner.
/æb/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ab?
#12,013 among boys’ names, 2025
Ab fell from #10,651 in 2015 to #12,013 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 3.1 to 2.9 per million.
41 babies in 2007, the peak
Ab peaked in 2007, when 41 boys were given it, #2,866 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 12% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #12,013 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 6 | #10,802 | 3.4 |
| 2020 | 7 | #9,556 | 4.1 |
| 2015 | 6 | #10,651 | 3.1 |
| 2013 | 7 | #9,653 | 3.7 |
| 2011 | 5 | #12,287 | 2.6 |
| 2010 | 6 | #10,762 | 3.1 |
| 2009 | 10 | #7,688 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 24 | #4,144 | 11.8 |
| 2007 | 41 | #2,866 | 19.8 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 32 | #3,305 | 15.6 |
| 2005 | 30 | #3,315 | 15.0 |
| 2004 | 33 | #3,010 | 16.6 |
| 2003 | 25 | #3,524 | 12.7 |
| 2002 | 17 | #4,497 | 8.8 |
| 2001 | 15 | #4,884 | 7.7 |
| 2000 | 17 | #4,382 | 8.7 |
| 1999 | 9 | #6,524 | 4.7 |
| 1997 | 9 | #6,094 | 4.8 |
| 1995 | 6 | #7,788 | 3.2 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,172 | 3.7 |
| 1942 | 5 | #3,559 | 3.6 |
| 1924 | 5 | #4,345 | 4.4 |
| 1922 | 6 | #3,870 | 5.5 |
| 1921 | 7 | #3,516 | 6.4 |
| 1918 | 6 | #3,727 | 5.9 |
| 1917 | 6 | #3,544 | 6.5 |
| 1916 | 8 | #2,925 | 9.0 |
| 1887 | 5 | #921 | 49.3 |
| 1885 | 6 | #835 | 55.7 |
| 1882 | 5 | #942 | 44.0 |
| 1880 | 5 | #909 | 45.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ab a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ab has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ab: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ab, and how old are they?
An estimated 310 Americans named Ab and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (82% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 19 and 23. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,231 people named Ab (386 women and girls, 845 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 297 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 2,110 babies since 1880, Ab is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 90 babies (5.6%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Ab and names like it
- Compare Ab and AyubBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAb peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ab since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Ab: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Ab.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ab alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.