Abigail

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Abigail is a female given name of Hebrew origin.

Abigaíl by Antonio Cortina Farinós (19th century)

Origin and meaning

In the Tanach , the Hebrew Bible, the name אֲבִיגַיִל, ( ʿabīgayil , Abigajil ) occurs for two different women: for a daughter of Isai ( 1 Chr 2,16-17  EU ) and sister of David as well as for the wife Nabal , who later one of the women of David ( 1 Sam 25  EU ). In the Jewish tradition, Nabal's wife is considered a prophetess .

In addition, there is the variant אֲבִיגַל ( ʿabīgal , Abigal) as the name of the daughter of Nachas and mother of Amasa ( 2 Sam 17.25  EU ).

The name is composed of אָב 'āv "father" and the root גיל gjl "cheer, rejoice". So Abigail can be translated as “my father exults” or “my father is joy”. But he is sometimes interpreted as the “head of the dance” and “lead dancer”.

distribution

In Germany the name has been used since the 16th century, but only sporadically. In the USA and Australia, on the other hand, the name is very popular. For example, it was the third most frequently given female first name in Australia in 2004 and fourth in the USA in 2005.

variants

Name days

Name day is July 8th.

Well-known namesake

Abby Wambach
Abigail Spencer

literature

  • Ulrike Bechmann: Abigail. Prophetess - wise woman - politician (= women of the Bible ). Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-932203-78-X

Individual evidence

  1. Uta Schmidt:  Abigail. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical dictionary on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on March 6, 2009.
  2. Wilfried Seibicke: First names . German language publisher. Wiesbaden 1977, ISBN 3-88228-000-X .
  3. Abigail . Behind the Name, accessed November 13, 2015.
  4. Heinz Schumacher: The names of the Bible and their meaning in German . 11th edition, Paulus Buchhandlung KG. Heilbronn 2005. ISBN 3-87618-027-9
  5. Duden: The large first name dictionary . 3. Edition. Mannheim 2007. ISBN 978-3-411-06083-2
  6. Calendar - July 21st - Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints. In: www.heiligenlexikon.de. Retrieved March 29, 2016 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Abigail  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Abigail  - collection of images, videos and audio files