Yael (name)

Yael

Gender	Female
Language(s)	Hebrew
Origin
Meaning	ibex, mountain goat
Region of origin	Near Eastern
Other names
Alternative spelling	Iael, Iaël, Jael, Jaël, Yaël, Ιαήλ (Greek)

Yael (Hebrew: יָעֵל, pronounced [jaˈʔel]; also spelled Jael) is a given name of Hebrew origin. It is the name of biblical figure Jael, who saved the Israelites by killing Sisera, commander of the Canaanite king Jabin's army, by hammering a tent peg through his temple while asleep in her tent. The word yael means "Nubian ibex" (Capra nubiana), from a verbal phrase meaning "he goes up".

In France, Yael or Yaël has been recorded was a somewhat rare feminine given name given in the 1970s and 1980s; it has since re-surfaced as a masculine given name ranked between 494th and 249th in popularity in France during 2000 to 2021.

People with the given name

• Yael Abecassis (b. 1967), Israeli actress and model
• Yael Arad (b. 1967), Israeli Olympic-medalist judoka
• Yael Averbuch (b. 1986), American soccer player
• Yael Bartana (b. 1970), Israeli video artist
• Yael Bitrán (b. 1965), Chilean-born naturalized Mexican historian, translator, and musicologist
• Yael Braudo-Bahat, Israeli peace activist
• Yael Cohen (b. 1986), founder and CEO of Fuck Cancer
• Yael Dayan (1939-2024), Israeli writer and politician
• Yael Eckstein, senior vice president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• Yael S. Feldman (b. 1941), Israeli-born American scholar
• Yael German (b. 1947), Israeli politician
• Yael Globerman (b. 1954), Israeli poet, writer, and translator
• Yael Goldman (b. 1978), Israeli actress, TV host, and model
• Yael Grobglas (b. 1984), Israeli actress
• Yaël Hassan (b. 1952), French-Israeli writer
• Yael Tauman Kalai, Israeli-American cryptographer
• Yael Kanarek (b. 1967), Israeli-American artist
• Yael Kraus (b. 1977), Israeli singer/songwriter
• Yael Lempert (b. 1973/4), American diplomat
• Yael Goldstein Love (b. 1978), American novelist, editor, and book critic
• Yael Markovich (b. 1984), Israeli-American model and Israeli beauty queen titleholder
• Yael Meyer (b. 1981), Chilean singer, songwriter, musician, and producer
• Yael Naim (b. 1978), French-Israeli singer/songwriter
• Yaël Braun-Pivet (b. 1970), French lawyer and politician
• Yael Rom née Finkelstein (1932–2006), one of the first female pilots of the Israeli Air Force
• Jael Ruesch (née Ashton), known as Jael (1937–2000), American fantasy artist/illustrator
• Yael Stone (b. 1985), Australian actress
• Jael Strauss (d. 2018), contestant on America's Next Top Model, season 8
• Yael Tal (b. 1983), Israeli actress
• Yael Tamir (b. 1954), Israeli academic and politician
• Yael Yuzon (b. 1983), Filipino vocalist and guitarist
• Yael Bar Zohar (b. 1980), Israeli actress, model, and television host

Middle name

• Jenifer Bartoli (Jenifer Yaël Dadouche-Bartoli) (born 1982), French pop singer
• Daniela Yael Krukower (born 1975), Israeli-Argentinean judoka world champion

Pseudonym

• Jaël (born 1979), stage name of Rahel Krebs, Swiss singer/songwriter
• Ivanka Trump (born 1981), took the Hebrew name Yael after converting to Judaism

Fictional characters

• Yael, a woman in ancient Israel who escapes the massacre at Masada, in Alice Hoffman's novel The Dovekeepers (2011)
• Yael Aronov, in John Sanford's novel Storm Front (2013)
• Yael "Yaeli" Ashkenazi, in the Netflix Original series When Heroes Fly
• Yael Baron, in the Netflix Original series Degrassi: Next Class
• Yael Hoffman, in the TV series Weeds
• Alice Jael Reasoner, also known as Jael, an assassin in Joanna Russ' novel The Female Man (1975)
• Yael from "Return to Me" by Lynn Austin

See also

• Merkaz Yael, a village in Northern Israel, named in 1960 for the biblical figure