Ariel
The story
Ariel means lion of God in Hebrew. In the Hebrew Bible it can serve as another name for Jerusalem. Literature then carried it in new directions: Shakespeare named the spirit in The Tempest Ariel, and Alexander Pope used the name for a sylph in The Rape of the Lock. In Hebrew and in many Filipino families, Ariel has long been familiar as a masculine name; English use also became strongly feminine, especially after Disney's The Little Mermaid in 1989. The US display rises through the 1970s and 1980s and then holds a high band from the 1990s onward. That combined curve contains more than one sex and more than one cultural route, so it should not be reduced to the mermaid. Ariel is biblical, literary, international, and unisex, with each history adding recognition without erasing the Hebrew root.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Ariel peaked in the 1930s and the 1950s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
38,341 people · the #692 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 5,291 · median age 15
Among people named Ariel living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 3,217 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Ariel
Most people given the name Ariel in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Ariel deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Ariel truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Ariel fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Ariel travels
Jewish American · a beloved unisex Hebrew name
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Ariel · Jewish American baby names · Hebrew baby names · Filipino American baby names
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