Gabriel

Gabriel comes from the Hebrew Gavriel, through Greek and Latin. It is usually explained as “God is my strength”, or “strong man of God”, joining a word for strength or a strong man with El, God.

Gabriel is one of the archangels, a messenger from God in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. In the Book of Daniel he explains the prophet’s visions, and in Luke’s gospel he tells Mary she will bear Jesus, the scene known as the Annunciation. In Islam he is known as Jibril. Catholics keep his feast, together with Michael and Raphael, on 29 September.

In Ireland Gabriel was a fairly common boys’ name in the 1960s, at number 72 in 1964. It became rare in the 1980s and 1990s, given to only a handful of boys some years, then came back from the 2000s. The most boys named Gabriel in a single year was 67, in 2015, and in recent years it has sat a little outside the top 100.