Abner

AB-ner

Hebrew

"father of light."

Abner Origin and Meaning

The name Abner is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "father of light.".

This neglected Biblical name--it was the name of the commander of Saul's army and appears twice in the New Testament--is ready to flee Dogpatch. It was regularly used in the nineteenth century, but was pretty much demolished by the long-running hillbilly comic strip L'il Abner, which began in 1934 and ran through 1977. A more respectable namesake is Abner Doubleday, who has been credited with inventing baseball.

Abner also has literary credentials, having appeared in works by James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Hardy and Eugene O'Neill.

Abner Rank in US Top 1000

# 997 in the US

Abner Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 883 on Nameberry

Abner Popularity

• 997 US 2023
• 883 Nameberry 2024
• 113 Unique 2022
• 773 Future 2028

20 Names Similar to Abner

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Abner.

• Abel
• Linus
• Abraham
• Amos
• Ephraim
• Luther
• Boaz
• Obadiah
• Roscoe
• Enoch
• Monroe
• Barnaby
• Ezekiel
• Jethro
• Humphrey
• Alfred
• Alistair
• Montgomery
• Amias
• Orson

Famous People Named Abner

• Abner Doubleday U.S. Civil War general; rumored to have invented baseball
• Abner Biberman American actor and director
• Abner Nash American politician; 2nd Governor of North Carolina
• Abner Haynes American NFL football player
• Abner Joseph Mikva U.S. Congressman and White House counsel
• Abner Frank Dalrymple American baseball player
• Abner Monroe Perrin U.S. Civil War general
• Abner Wilcox American missionary to Hawaii
• (Abner) Linwood Holton Jr. American politician; 61st Governor of Virginia

Abner in Pop Culture

• Li'l Abner Yokum main character in comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp
• Abner pet pig on animated series "Hey Arnold!"
• Abner Kravitz character on TV's "Bewitched"
• Abner Hale character in James Michener's "Hawaii"
• Abner Ronald Jenkins character in Marvel Comics
• Abner Brown character in John Masefield's "The Box of Delights"