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Girl · Latin, through Norman French
Mabel
Say it: MAY-bul
Meaning
A medieval English short form of Amabel, from Latin amabilis 'lovable'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Well used in 12th- and 13th-century England, then rare until a strong Victorian revival.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1890s
In the United States
- 136,785 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1891, about 1 in 91 girls
- 712 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Mabilia, Mable, Maybelle
Famous bearers
- Mabel de Bellême, Norman noblewoman
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Medieval European charters and records
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.