Abner - Meaning of Abner

What does Abner mean?

[ 2 syll. a-bner, ab-n-er ] The baby boy name Abner is pronounced as AEB-NahR in English †. 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. A biblical name, it is derived from the words 'av' meaning father ; 'ner' 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, the English Abnur, the name Abnyr, the Hebrew Avner, and the name Ebnor are forms of Abner.

Other forms of Abner include the contractions Ab (English) and Abe (English), the familiar forms Abbey (English) and Abby (English), and the variant spelling Ebner (German).

See also the related categories, army (warrior), king, uncle, light (sun), puritans, english, biblical, hebrew, american, and decline.

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 2018.

† Pronunciation for Abner: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)" ; R as in "race (R.EY.S)"

A famous person named Abner is Military Leader, Abner Doubleday, born 26 June 1819 - 26 January 1893, Ballston Spa, New York.



Meaning of Abner Meaning of Ab Meaning of Abe Meaning of Abbey Meaning of Abby Meaning of Ebner Meaning of Ebnor Meaning of Avner Meaning of Abnyr Meaning of Abnur Meaning of Abnor Meaning of Abnir Meaning of Abnar Meaning of Abna Meaning of Abelard Meaning of Abraham Meaning of Abbas Meaning of Abbott Meaning of Abel Meaning of Abram Meaning of Abby Meaning of Abigail Meaning of Abbey Meaning of Abi
Baby Name Explorer for Abner

Abner Popularity Charts

Legend:
blue:boy name
red:girl name
italics:unisex name
bold:primary name