Deborah
Masculine · “bee”
Deborah is given to girls far more often — 742,820 girls against 1,658 boys since 1880. See Deborah as a girl name
Deborah is the Hebrew word for a bee, and the woman who carries it in the Bible is a judge, a war leader and a poet, which is an unusual combination in any book. There is a second Deborah in the text as well, easy to miss, whose whole recorded life is a single verse. She was a nurse in the household of Rebecca, and when she died they buried her under an oak and gave the tree a name.
How old is the name Deborah?
Deborah first appears in US birth records in 1939 — 86 years ago. The typical Deborah alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 1,300 people named Deborah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Deborah most popular?
Deborah peaked in 1952, reaching #726 nationally. See the whole 1952 chart.
Where it comes from
From The Hebrew word for a bee, used as a name to Deborah
The story of Deborah
The famous Deborah holds court under a palm tree between two towns, and the text says people came up to her for judgment, which is about as much administrative detail as it gives anyone. She summons a general, tells him what to do, and goes with him when he refuses to move without her. The victory song that follows is a fierce, jubilant, deeply strange piece of poetry that scholars treat as among the oldest writing in the Hebrew Bible. The other Deborah is the counterweight. She appears once, at the end of a verse, as Rebecca's nurse, who has died and been buried beneath an oak below Bethel, and the narrator records that the tree was afterwards called the oak of weeping. There is no story attached, no explanation of why a servant's grave was marked and remembered. Somebody thought it mattered enough to write down, and the name of a tree is all that survives of her.
Meaning
bee
The Hebrew noun means a bee, and the connection is not in dispute. What the name was meant to convey is another matter and is not recorded: industriousness, sweetness, the sting, the organization of a hive, or simply the ordinary practice of naming children after creatures. Hebrew names drawn from animals are common and rarely come with an explanation attached, so the meaning of the word is certain and the intention behind it is not.
How the name formed
- The Hebrew word for a bee, used as a name
- Carried by Puritan and Nonconformist households
- Widely used across mid-century America
- Debbie, Deb and Debra alongside it
Related forms: Devorah · Debora · Debora · Debora
Pronouncing Deborah
DEB-uh-ruh
Three syllables with the stress on the first. Hebrew puts it on the last, giving deh-vo-RAH, and the v where English has a b is the same consonant treated differently by the two languages. Debra is the two-syllable respelling of the English version.
Nicknames for Deborah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1939
- Most boys named
- 1955100 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #726reached in 1952
- Change vs 1989
- −50.0%5 in 1990, from 10
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Deborah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Devorah in Hebrew — same name
- Debora in Italian — spelling variant
- Debora in French — spelling variant
- Debora in Spanish — spelling variant
Deborahs among us
people named Deborah are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Deborah sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is completely familiar, universally spellable and has never needed explaining to anyone.
- It carries one of the strongest women's stories in the Hebrew Bible, and the story is short enough to tell a child.
- Deb and Debbie give the name two very different registers to move between.
- It is strongly tied to one generation of American women, and that association is immediate for anybody over fifty.
- Debra and Deborah are constantly confused, and your child will be spelling out the middle of the name.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well, in very small numbers, and reads female to essentially everyone.
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What they receive
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Deborah
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Deborahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Deborah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Deborah in 2025?
- Deborah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Deborah with classmates?
- Deborah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Deborah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Deborah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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