Gabriel

Proper noun

Gabriel

1. A male given name from Latin [in turn from Ancient Greek, in turn from Hebrew].
   • Yea, it seems to me not fit for Christian humility to call a man Gabriel or Michael, giving the names of angels to the sons of mortality.1629, Thomas Adams, Meditations upon Creed, The Works of Thomas Adams, James Nichol (1862), volume 3, page 212
   • "I'm the only Gabriel in the whole school," I told my father. "You don't have to whisper it from the tomb, lad. You should thank your mother and me for giving you a handle that people notice. You ought to be pleased, not down in the dumps. Backstreet Gabriels aren't bumped into on every corner...1986, Paul Bailey, Gabriel's Lament, Viking, published 1987, →ISBN, page 20
   1. An archangel associated in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with carrying messages from God.
      • Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
      • And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
2. A surname originating as a patronymic.