Yael
A Hebrew name meaning "mountain goat", the wild ibex that lives on rocky cliffs. Barely 600 Polish women carry it and almost none are born now, so most Poles have never met one.
Yael Pronunciation
Yael is pronounced ih-AH-el (/ɨˈaɛl/).
What Yael means
Where Yael comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Yael comes from Hebrew, where the word names a wild mountain goat, the ibex that climbs the cliffs above the Dead Sea. In the Book of Judges, Yael is the woman who drives a tent peg through the sleeping general Sisera and turns the battle. The name and the animal share a root, and the ibex keeps to high, dangerous ground.
The short meaning in Polish is koziorożec, the wild goat that keeps its footing where nothing else can.
Among Jewish families the name stayed in use for centuries, and in Israel it is still common for girls today. In Poland it is rarer. The spelling holds no Polish diminutive and no variant, so it arrives whole. A teacher reading a class register might pause over Yael before the girl answers. What the name goes back to is the ibex, sure-footed on the rock.
How many people are named Yael
1 in 36716 women in Poland is named Yael. 616 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1202 among female names.
Yael's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Yael as a middle name
Yael is a first name for 616 women in Poland and a middle name for another 141, an 81/19 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 551st, between Raquel (141) and Ellen (140).
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#549 Chloe141
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#550 Raquel141
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#551 Yael141
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#552 Ellen140
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#553 Alojza138