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[ 2 syll. a-bner, ab-n-er ] The boy name Abner is pronounced as AEBNer †. Abner is primarily used in the English language and its language of origin is Hebrew. The meaning of the name is father of light, father is light. Biblical name derived from the words 'av' meaning father ; 'ner' meaning light. An older form of Abner is Avner (Hebrew). In the Bible, Abner was King Saul's first cousin and army commander. His father was named Ner, and his name could also have meant 'his father is Ner'. The name was adopted by the Puritans after the Reformation. Abner has been more common in America than in England. The name has appeared in the 'Uncle Abner' stories by Melville Davisson Post, which were serialised in American newspapers from 1911 onwards, and in Eugene O'Neill's trilogy play Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) as the name of the fictional Abner Small. It has also appeared as the name of the ignorant, poor and stubborn Abner Yokum in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner (1934-1977) which satirized American society; the association led to a decline in the name's popularity. The English Abna, the English Abnar, the name Abnir, the English Abnor, and the Hebrew Avner are variant forms of the name. Other forms of Abner include the short forms Ab (English) and Abe (English), the pet forms Abbey (English) and Abby (English), and the variant spelling Ebner (German). Abner is uncommon as a baby boy name. At the modest height of its usage in 1901, 0.022% of baby boys were given the name Abner. It was #371 in rank then. The baby name has dropped out of favor since then, and is now of irregular use. Within all boy names in its family, Abner was nonetheless the most widely used in 2009. Baby names that sound like Abner include the English Abnar, the English Abnor, the name Abnir, and the Hebrew Avner. A famous person named Abner is Military Leader, Abner Doubleday, born 26 June 1819 - 26 January 1893, Ballston Spa, New York.
† Pronunciation for Abner: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; ER as in "hurt (HH.ER.T)"   |
