​
​
Advanced Search

Abner

AB-ner
Hebrew
"father of light."
Clare Green
By Clare Green
Updated Mon Jul 14 2025

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.

# 837 in the US

Abner Rank in US Top 1000

# 1355 on Nameberry

Abner Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Popularity of the name Abner

20 Names Similar to Abner

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

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

The name 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"

International Variations of the name Abner

  • Ab
    Israeli
  • Avner
    Israeli

The name Abner in Nameberry Blog Posts