Abigail

Abigail comes from the Hebrew Avigail, built from av, "father," and gil, "joy" or "rejoicing." Put together, the name says my father is joy. Polish catches the same sense in radość ojca.

The oldest bearer we can name is the Abigail of the First Book of Samuel. She is married to the harsh Nabal, and when her household stands in danger she rides out to meet David with food and level words. Scripture praises her good sense. Later she becomes David's wife.

English speakers took the name up much later, especially among Puritan families who favored biblical names. One odd footnote followed. In a 1616 play by Beaumont and Fletcher, a servant named Abigail was so memorable that "abigail" turned into a common English word for a lady's maid. The girl's name outlived the joke. On a Polish class register today, an Abigail sits among names of very different roots, her own reaching back to av and gil, father and joy.