Boy · Hebrew · Christian
Abner
AbnerSay it AB-ner
Abner meaning
Abner is a Christian boy's name of Hebrew origin.
Father of light, that is, enlightening
Abner is a Hebrew name made of ab, 'father', and ner, 'lamp' or 'light'. Strong's Concordance renders it 'father of light', which it explains as 'enlightening'. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon offers two readings: 'my father is a lamp', or 'my father is Ner', since the biblical Abner was the son of a man called Ner. In the Books of Samuel, Abner is King Saul's cousin and the commander of his army, who later made peace with David. Name lists give the same 'father of light' meaning, and the name is used by Christian families in South India.
Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary, H74 · entry Abner · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026
References: Strong's H74, Abner (Bible Hub)
Famous namesakes
- Abner, commander of King Saul's army in the Books of Samuel
Popularity abroad
- #874 United States, boys 2025 (down 36 from 838 in 2024)
US Social Security Administration
Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.