Abraham

In the Hebrew Bible he is the father of Isaac and Ishmael, the ancestor of the Israelites and, through Ishmael, the Arab peoples.

Jewish tradition places his life around 2000 BCE in Ur of the Chaldees. In Islam he is known as Ibrahim and honored as a prophet and friend of God (khalil Allah).

In literature and politics the name carries extraordinary weight. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, remains the most recognized bearer in the English-speaking world.

The name also appears throughout English literature, from John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel (1681) to Bram Stoker’s Dr. Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula (1897).

Abraham has been in continuous use in the United States since colonial times, buoyed by Puritan preference for Old Testament names. The U.S. Social Security Administration records show it has never left the top 500 since tracking began in 1880.

It peaked around rank 160 in 2014 and remains steadily popular among Christian, Jewish, and Latino families. Spanish-speaking countries favor the variant Abrán.

Contemporary bearers include actor Abraham Benrubi and Colombian singer Abraham Mateo.