Heba
Feminine · “a gift”
Heba is the Arabic word for a gift — specifically something given freely, without expectation of return. It is one of the plainest and most-used women's names across the Arab world, and its American record follows Arabic-speaking migration, peaking in 1992.
How old is the name Heba?
Heba first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Heba alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,400 people named Heba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Heba most popular?
Heba peaked in 1992, reaching #2869 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 3,048 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From w-h-b to Heba
The story of Heba
Arabic naming draws heavily on nouns of divine favor, and the giving root is among the most productive: Hiba, Wahb, Mawhiba and Abd al-Wahhab all come from it. The name is used across Egypt, the Levant, Iraq and the Gulf, and it became notably fashionable in the later twentieth century. The two common transliterations — Heba and Hiba — divide roughly along regional lines, with Heba more usual in Egyptian usage. American records show it from the 1970s and peaking in the early 1990s, following the growth of Egyptian, Palestinian and Iraqi communities.
Meaning
a gift; something freely given
From the Arabic root w-h-b, 'to give, to grant', which also gives the name Wahb and the divine attribute al-Wahhab, 'the Bestower', one of the ninety-nine names of God. Hiba is the noun: a gift, a grant, a donation made without compensation — the word has a technical sense in Islamic law for a gift transferred freely. The transliteration Heba writes the short vowel as an e, which is the usual Egyptian and Levantine convention.
How the name formed
- w-h-b
- hiba
- Heba
Related forms: Hiba · Heba · Hibe
Pronouncing Heba
HEH-bah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a light h and an open final a. English speakers reach it readily; the main variation is a long e in the first syllable, HEE-bah, which is closer to the Hiba spelling.
Nicknames for Heba
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
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 200751 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2869reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −13.0%20 in 2025, from 23
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.
Heba in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hiba in Arabic — spelling variant
- Heba in Arabic — transliteration
- Hibe in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Hebas among us
people named Heba are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Heba
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lynett test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Heba's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lynett climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lynett's path sketches the road Heba is walking now.
Heba sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Heba beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Heba in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single positive word, understood across an enormous territory.
- It is short and made only of sounds English already has.
- The spelling is easy to write and needs no accents.
- Heba and Hiba are both standard transliterations and look like errors for each other.
- It is close to Hiba, Hana and Reba in sound.
- It is rare in the United States and will be spelled out routinely.
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What they receive
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Heba
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hebas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Heba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Heba in 2025?
- Heba ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Heba?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Heba — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Heba with classmates?
- Heba will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Heba
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Heba? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Heba and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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