AH-ree-el, AIR-ee-el
Ariel
Top 1000
About Ariel
Ariel is a male Biblical name, seen there as the messenger of Ezra, and also used as a symbolic name for the city of Jerusalem, while Shakespeare used it for a (male) sprite in The Tempest.
For girls, Ariel enjoyed a considerable burst of popularity with the 1989 release of Disney's The Little Mermaid: in 1991 it peaked at #66.
Although its wave has crested, Ariel is still a name any little girl would love. It is also associated with the poetry of Sylvia Plath and with the Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman. The popular historian Ariel Durant was born Ida Ariel Ethel.
In Israel, Ariel is used as much or more for boys, but in the US, more than three times as many baby girls as boys are named Ariel. Read more about Ariel and other Disney Princess Names in our featured blog.
Pronounced AH-ree-el, AIR-ee-el.
As of October 2026, Ariel ranked #356 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #66 in 1991, Nameberry popularity #494.
Editor's take: The name Ariel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lion of God".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #132 | 2,444 | 1,368.1 |
| 2015 | #137 | 2,358 | 1,320.9 |
| 2016 | #140 | 2,198 | 1,240.4 |
| 2017 | #142 | 2,075 | 1,201.9 |
| 2018 | #154 | 1,828 | 1,074.6 |
| 2019 | #172 | 1,683 | 1,002.8 |
| 2020 | #200 | 1,468 | 908.1 |
| 2021 | #220 | 1,351 | 823.3 |
| 2022 | #237 | 1,292 | 787.7 |
| 2023 | #287 | 1,094 | 681.8 |
| 2024 | #299 | 1,051 | 648.7 |
| 2025 | #356 | 851 | 529.5 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Ariel.
Famous Ariels
- Ariel Winter
American actress
- Ariel Gade
American actress
- Ariel Meredith
American supermodel
- Ariel Waller
Canadian actress
- Ariel Lin (Yīchén)
Taiwanese actress and singer
- Ariel Erin Kaplan
Australian actress
- Ariel Bybee
American operatic mezzo,soprano
- Ariel Engelbert
American singer and TV personality; twin sister Zoey Engelbert
- Ariel Hirsch
twin sister of Alex Hirsch and the inspiration for "Gravity Falls" Mabel Pines
- Ariel Shepherd
Oppenheim, daughter of actress Cybill Shepherd
- Ariel Coyote
daughter of actor Peter Coyote
- Ariel Asa Araya (b. 1996)
daughter of bassist Tom Araya of Slayer
Ariel in pop culture
- Ariel
main character of Disney's "The Little Mermaid"
- Ariel Sullivan
a character in the movie "In America"
- Ariel Moore
a character in the 1984 movie "Footloose"
- Ariel Truax
a character in the movie "Grumpy Old Men"
- Ariel Schiller
a character in "Starting Out in the Evening"
- Ariel DuBois
a character in the drama series "Medium"
- Ariel Wolfe
a character in "House on Haunted Hill"
- Ariel Shuman
from an episode of TV series "Cold Case"
- Ariel
a book of poetry by Sylvia Plath