Hezekiah
Masculine · “Yah strengthens”
Hezekiah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 11,213 boys against 15 girls since 1880.
Hezekiah belonged first to a king of Judah who held Jerusalem through an Assyrian siege in the eighth century BC, and whose story is told at length in Kings, Chronicles and Isaiah. English speakers took it up in earnest in the seventeenth century, when Puritan families reached past the saints' calendar into the Hebrew scriptures for names. Four syllables with the stress landing hard in the middle — hez-uh-KY-uh — and a spelling that has not changed in English since the King James translators set it down.
How old is the name Hezekiah?
Hezekiah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hezekiah is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 9,600 people named Hezekiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hezekiah most popular?
Hezekiah peaked in 1891, reaching #427 nationally. Today it ranks #485, 58 places below that high. See the whole 1891 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ḥizqiyyahu to Hezekiah
The story of Hezekiah
The Hebrew form is Ḥizqiyyahu, borne by the thirteenth king of Judah, son of Ahaz, who reformed the Temple worship and survived Sennacherib's siege — an episode narrated three separate times in the Hebrew Bible. Greek translators rendered it Ezekias, and Latin Ezechias, which is why the Romance languages still say Ezequías and Ezequias rather than anything close to the English form. English kept much nearer the Hebrew: Hezekiah arrived through the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English Bibles, and was carried into everyday use by Puritan families in England and then in colonial New England, alongside Obadiah, Jedidiah and Zebediah. It has stayed in continuous American use ever since, thinly in some generations and more strongly in others.
Meaning
Yah strengthens, or my strength is Yah
From the Hebrew elements ḥazaq, to be strong or to strengthen, and Yah, a short form of the divine name. The same ḥazaq sits inside Ezekiel and Hizkiah.
How the name formed
- Ḥizqiyyahu
- Ezekias
- Ezechias
- Hezekiah
Related forms: Chizkiyahu · Ezequías · Ezequias · Ezekias · Ezechias · Ezechia
Pronouncing Hezekiah
hez-uh-KY-uh
Four syllables, stress on the third. The English pronunciation is settled and has been for centuries; the Spanish and Portuguese forms sound quite different, so bilingual families may want to decide which one they are using.
Nicknames for Hezekiah
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2025621 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #427reached in 1891
- Change vs 2022
- +27.0%621 in 2025, from 489
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.
Hezekiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chizkiyahu in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ezequías in Spanish — same name
- Ezequias in Portuguese — same name
- Ezekias in Greek — same name
- Ezechias in Latin — same name
- Ezechia in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Hezekiahs among us
people named Hezekiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,751 born in 2025 was named Hezekiah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Hezekiah is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hezekiah is headed
Hezekiah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Hezekiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hezekiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One fixed English spelling, unchanged since the earliest English Bibles, so there is no variant war to lose.
- A documented history running back to an eighth-century BC king of Judah, with an unbroken written record ever since.
- Several established short forms already in real use — Hez, Zeke, Kiah — so the four syllables are optional in daily life.
- Recognizable across Spanish and Portuguese as Ezequías and Ezequias, which gives it a foothold outside English.
- Four syllables and an unusual shape mean it will be spelled out and repeated at doctors' offices, on forms and over the phone. Hezekia and Hesekiah are the common misfires.
- The biblical anchor is strong and specific. In some settings the name will read straightforwardly as a statement of faith, which suits some families and not others.
- It is close enough to Ezekiel, Zechariah and Zephaniah that people who half-remember it will reach for the wrong one, and Zeke as a nickname does nothing to clear that up.
- He is unlikely to share a classroom with another, which cuts both ways: no confusion, but also no crowd to blend into while he learns to say it himself.
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Hezekiah
Masculine · #485 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hezekiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,600 people named Hezekiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hezekiah in 2025?
- Hezekiah ranks #485 among US boy names in 2025, with 621 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hezekiah?
- About 1 in every 2,751 US boys born in 2025 was named Hezekiah — 621 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hezekiah with classmates?
- Hezekiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hezekiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nasir#486 · Rowen#486 · Edgar#486 · Asa#483 · Kasen#483 · Adan#482 · Sean#489 · Makai#481
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hezekiah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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