Keturah
Feminine · “incense”
Keturah is incense. In Genesis she is the woman Abraham marries after Sarah's death, and the mother of six sons whose descendants are given whole nations in the genealogy; her name is built from the word for the smoke of burnt spices rising in a temple.
How old is the name Keturah?
Keturah first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Keturah alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 3,300 people named Keturah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keturah most popular?
Keturah peaked in 1982, reaching #1337 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 3,421 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Where it comes from
From Qeturah to Keturah
The story of Keturah
Genesis gives Keturah four verses and then moves on, but those verses matter: her sons are made the ancestors of peoples across Arabia and the Syrian desert, which put her at the head of several genealogies that later writers cared about a great deal. English-speaking Protestants took up her name after the Reformation, when the whole of the Old Testament became a naming source, and it was used steadily in America from the colonial period. It has stayed rare and has never been fashionable, which is part of its appeal.
Meaning
incense; fragrance
Hebrew Qeturah, from qetoret, incense or the smoke of an offering, from a root meaning to burn or to smoke. The connection is direct and has never been disputed.
How the name formed
- Qeturah
- Keturah
Related forms: קטורה
Pronouncing Keturah
keh-TOO-ruh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Some families say KET-yoo-ruh with the weight in front; the Hebrew supports the middle stress.
Nicknames for Keturah
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
- 1890
- Most girls named
- 199296 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1337reached in 1982
- Change vs 2023
- −36.4%28 in 2025, from 44
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.
Keturah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- קטורה in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio.
Keturahs among us
people named Keturah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Keturah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Keturah
- #4758
- Keturah on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Keturah went to 28 girls in 2025, but Ketura is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,831 places above the chart.
- Keturah28
- Ketura5
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 57,402 for Keturah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kimbra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keturah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kimbra climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kimbra's path sketches the road Keturah is walking now.
Keturah 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
Where Keturah is headed
Keturah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Keturah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keturah 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 concrete and sensory rather than abstract: a smell, not a virtue.
- It is biblical without being one of the biblical names everyone already knows.
- The spelling is phonetic once the stress is settled.
- It is rare enough that it will be spelled out and explained frequently.
- Two stress patterns circulate and the spelling does not decide between them.
- Its bearer in Genesis is given very little space, so there is not much story to hand a curious child.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Keturah
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keturahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Keturah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Keturah?
- Keturah is the most-used spelling in US records — 28 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ketura.
- How popular is the name Keturah in 2025?
- Keturah ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keturah?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Keturah — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keturah with classmates?
- Keturah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keturah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Ixchel#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keturah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keturah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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