Jebediah
Masculine · “beloved of the Lord”
Jebediah is a modern extension of Jedidiah, the second name Solomon is given and never called by again.
How old is the name Jebediah?
Jebediah first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Jebediah alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 700 people named Jebediah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jebediah most popular?
Jebediah peaked in 1978, reaching #2068 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 2,328 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yedidyah to Jebediah
The story of Jebediah
The second book of Samuel says that after Solomon is born the prophet Nathan gives him the name Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord — and the text never uses it again. A name conferred by a prophet and then dropped is a striking loose end. Jebediah with a b appears in American records from the twentieth century and is not a biblical spelling.
Meaningscholars disagree
beloved of the Lord
Jedidiah joins a Hebrew word for beloved to the divine element -yah. The b in Jebediah has no basis in the Hebrew and appears to be a modern American addition, possibly by confusion with Jeb.
How the name formed
- Yedidyah
- Jedidiah
- Jebediah
Related forms: Jedidiah · Yedidyah
Pronouncing Jebediah
jeb-uh-DY-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Jebediah
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 201629 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2068reached in 1978
- Change vs 2024
- −4.2%23 in 2025, from 24
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.
Jebediah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jedidiah in English — related form
- Yedidyah in Hebrew — related form
Jebediahs among us
people named Jebediah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Jebediah
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 Kennis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jebediah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kennis climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kennis's path sketches the road Jebediah is walking now.
Jebediah 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
Jebediah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jebediah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that forms a complete phrase.
- Jeb and Jed are both complete short forms in their own right.
- A genuinely interesting loose end in the biblical text behind it.
- Jedidiah is the biblical spelling and the b has no basis in it.
- Nine letters and four syllables is a great deal for early handwriting.
- It reads as deliberately rustic to some American ears.
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What they receive
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Jebediah
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jebediahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Jebediah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jebediah in 2025?
- Jebediah ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jebediah?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Jebediah — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jebediah with classmates?
- Jebediah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jebediah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jebediah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jebediah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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