Rebecca
Masculine · “possibly a tie or a knot”
Rebecca is given to girls far more often — 755,992 girls against 2,114 boys since 1880. See Rebecca as a girl name
For two centuries in the English-speaking world this was a name for Puritan and Jewish households and almost nobody else. What took it out of both and made it generally available was a novel — and the character who did it is the one the author refused to let marry the hero.
How old is the name Rebecca?
Rebecca first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Rebecca alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 1,700 people named Rebecca are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rebecca most popular?
Rebecca peaked in 1975, reaching #982 nationally. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rivqah to Rebecca
The story of Rebecca
Before the novel there was Salem. The most respected woman accused in the trials carried this name: a church member in her seventies, hard of hearing, whose neighbors signed a petition for her and whose jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The court sent them back to reconsider on the strength of a remark she had made that she almost certainly had not heard properly, and they returned with a conviction. She was hanged with four others. Her family recovered the body and buried it at home, and the case is one of the reasons the trials collapsed within the year: convicting her convinced a great many people that the whole thing had gone wrong.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly a tie or a knot
Hebrew, and genuinely unsettled. Several proposals exist and none can be secured. Pages that give a single confident reading are choosing between guesses without saying so.
How the name formed
- Rivqah
- Rebekah
- Rebecca
Related forms: Rivka · Rebeca · Rebecca · Rebekka
Pronouncing Rebecca
ruh-BEK-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The opening is unstressed and reduces almost to nothing, which is why the first vowel is spelled inconsistently across languages.
Nicknames for Rebecca
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 197570 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #982reached in 1975
- Change vs 2008
- −12.5%7 in 2017, from 8
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.
Rebecca in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rivka in Hebrew — same name
- Rebeca in Spanish — spelling variant
- Rebecca in Italian — same name
- Rebekka in German — spelling variant
Rebeccas among us
people named Rebecca are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Rebecca sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is ancient, widely recognized and carried in most European languages.
- The set of short forms is unusually rich and spans several generations.
- The spelling is settled and gives no trouble.
- Its peak was recent enough and large enough to date the name to a decade.
- The meaning cannot honestly be given as settled, whatever other pages say.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Rebecca
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Rebeccas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Rebecca are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rebecca in 2025?
- Rebecca is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Rebecca with classmates?
- Rebecca will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rebecca? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rebecca and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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