It has seen masculine and feminine use consecutively in the United States.
As a woman's name, it is a short form of the biblical name Abigail.
[1] It can also be used as a form of the name Galen, a name derived from that of the ancient Greek physician, meaning "tranquil."
It was almost exclusively a masculine name before 1935; in the later 1930s, it became a popular variant of the feminine name Abigail.
Its popularity decreased rapidly in the 1960s, falling below rank 1,000 in 1971.