Likely a variant of Ariel, the Hebrew name meaning lion of God.
Eriel is a variant form of Ariel, the ancient Hebrew name meaning "lion of God" — from אֲרִי (ari, lion) and אֵל (El, God) — or in an alternative reading, "hearth of God," referring to the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem. The spelling with an initial E gives the name a softer, more ethereal quality while preserving its celestial core. In the Hebrew Bible, Ariel appears as a poetic name for Jerusalem itself in the book of Isaiah, used with both love and lamentation.
It also appears as a personal name in the books of Ezra and Chronicles. The name's cultural resonance exploded in the English-speaking world through Shakespeare, whose Ariel in The Tempest (c. 1611) is an airy spirit of extraordinary delicacy and power — able to control wind, fire, and sea, bound to serve the wizard Prospero but longing for freedom.
This Ariel became one of literature's most beloved supernatural figures, and the name acquired an association with intelligence, swiftness, and a kind of shimmering, uncontainable energy. Later, Alexander Pope named a sylph Ariel in The Rape of the Lock, reinforcing its association with the otherworldly. The Eriel spelling positions the name in a more contemporary, individualized space — parents choosing it often want the same luminous quality without the more familiar form. In an era when names like Gabriel, Rafael, and Uriel have reclaimed their angelic resonance, Eriel fits naturally into that constellation of names that feel both ancient and alive.