Ariel

The name Ariel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lion of God". Ariel is a biblical name, seen there as the messenger of Ezra, and also used as a symbolic name for the city of Jerusalem, while Shakespeare used it for a (male) sprite in The Tempest. For girls, Ariel enjoyed a considerable burst of popularity with the 1989 release of Disney's The Little Mermaid: in 1991 it peaked at Number 66. Although its wave has crested, Ariel is still a name any little girl would love. It is also associated with the poetry of Sylvia Plath and with the Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman. The popular historian Ariel Durant was born Ida Ariel Ethel. In Israel, Ariel is used as much or more for boys, but in the US, more than three times as many baby girls as boys are named Ariel.