Mordechai
Masculine · Hebrew roots
Mordechai is the name of the guardian of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, set in the Persian capital of Susa, and it has been read aloud from a scroll every Purim for well over two thousand years. It is four syllables that begin firmly and end on an open sound — MOR-de-khai — and it has arrived in English twice, once through the Bible as Mordecai and once through Hebrew and Yiddish speakers who kept the throaty ch.
How old is the name Mordechai?
Mordechai first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Mordechai alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 6,700 people named Mordechai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mordechai most popular?
Mordechai peaked in 2018, reaching #748 nationally. Today it ranks #965, 217 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Mordechai appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Mordekhai (Hebrew) to Mordechai
The story of Mordechai
The name belongs to the Book of Esther, where Mordechai is the Jewish exile in Susa who raises his cousin Esther and refuses to bow to Haman. Because that scroll is chanted publicly at Purim, the name never went dormant the way many biblical names did — it stayed in continuous Jewish use through the medieval and early modern periods, picking up Yiddish forms like Motl and Mordche along the way. English Bibles from the sixteenth century onward printed it as Mordecai, and that spelling was taken up by Puritan and later American families. Mordechai, with the ch, is the transliteration closer to the Hebrew מרדכי, and it is the form that traveled with Ashkenazi families to the United States, where it remains concentrated in the Northeast.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often traced to the Babylonian god Marduk — roughly "of Marduk"
The link to Marduk, chief god of Babylon, is the reading found in most reference works, and it fits a story set in exile among Persian and Babylonian names. The exact formation behind it is not agreed on, and a minority of scholars have proposed Persian roots instead. The Book of Esther itself never glosses the name, so no meaning comes down to us from the text.
How the name formed
- MordekhaiHebrew
- MardochaiosGreek Septuagint
- MardochaeusLatin Vulgate
- MordecaiEnglish Bible
- Mordechai
Related forms: מרדכי · Mordecai · Motl · Mardoqueo · Mardochée · Mardochaios
Pronouncing Mordechai
MOR-de-khai
In Hebrew the stress falls on the last syllable and the ch is guttural, as in Chanukah. Many American English speakers say MOR-de-kye, with a k sound, which is also how the Bible spelling Mordecai is usually read. Both are in real use.
Nicknames for Mordechai
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
- 1950
- Most boys named
- 2018315 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #748reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +0.4%238 in 2025, from 237
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.
Mordechai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- מרדכי in Hebrew — same name
- Mordecai in English — spelling variant
- Motl in Yiddish — related form
- Mardoqueo in Spanish — same name
- Mardochée in French — same name
- Mardochaios in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, Florida.
Mordechais among us
people named Mordechai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,177 born in 2025 was named Mordechai
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 Kenji test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mordechai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenji climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenji's path sketches the road Mordechai is walking now.
Mordechai 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 Mordechai is headed
Mordechai 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.
Mordechai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mordechai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An unbroken record of more than two thousand years, kept alive by the annual public reading of the Book of Esther rather than by fashion.
- Several long-established short forms — Motti, Mordy, Motl — so a four-syllable name has ready everyday options.
- The variant Mordecai is familiar to English readers from the Bible, so the name is recognizable even where the ch spelling is not.
- Exists in parallel forms across Hebrew, Yiddish, Greek, Latin, Spanish and French.
- Two spellings compete: Mordechai and Mordecai. Both are correct, and he will spend a fair amount of life clarifying which one is his.
- The ch is a real fork. Hebrew speakers will give it a guttural sound, most English speakers a k, and he may answer to both versions of his own name.
- It is unmistakably a Jewish biblical name, which is a strength inside a community that knows it and something to weigh in settings where it will always need a moment of explanation.
- Four syllables is a lot for a roll call, though the established short forms have handled that for centuries. He is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
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Mordechai
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #965 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mordechais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,700 people named Mordechai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mordechai in 2025?
- Mordechai ranks #965 among US boy names in 2025, with 238 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mordechai?
- About 1 in every 7,177 US boys born in 2025 was named Mordechai — 238 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mordechai with classmates?
- Mordechai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mordechai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Quentin#965 · Arian#965 · Colten#965 · Imran#969 · Beaux#970 · Shimon#960 · Wallace#960 · Darwin#960
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mordechai? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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