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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

UnisexOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

ArielIn Hebrew: אריאל · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: אֲרִיאֵלRomanization: ari'él

Ariel (Hebrew: אריאל) is a unisex name of biblical origin. 48,793 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,479 boys and ranked #5. Its peak year was 2024, with 2,099 babies.

People in Israel
48,793
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
1,479
rank #5
Peak year
2024
2,099 babies
USA, 2025
533
rank #558

Writing and saying Ariel

In Hebrew letters the name is אריאל, read right to left. Ariel is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "ari'él" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a male or female given name, Ariel
From אֲרִי (arí, “lion”) + אֵל (él, “God”), hence meaning "lion of God".

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Ariel by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Ariel: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Ariel in English-speaking countries

Ariel in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025533#5581991 (666)
United Kingdom202530#1,0802025 (30)
England and Wales202530#1,0072025 (30)
Ireland20253#7872014 (3)
Alberta20254#9732025 (4)
Quebec202513#3542022 (19)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Ariel has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Ariel

How do you write Ariel in Hebrew?

Ariel is written אריאל in Hebrew (with vowel points: אֲרִיאֵל). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "ari'él".

How many people in Israel are named Ariel?

48,793 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name אריאל: 11,443 women and 37,350 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Ariel a boy's or a girl's name?

Both. In Israel 23% of the people named אריאל are women and 77% are men, so we count it as unisex (our threshold: at least 20% of the less common sex).

What does the name Ariel mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a male or female given name, Ariel" Etymology: From אֲרִי (arí, “lion”) + אֵל (él, “God”), hence meaning "lion of God".

Is Ariel used outside Israel?

The name Ariel appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 533 boys were given it in 2025 (#558), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 30 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.