Uriah
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “the LORD is my light”
Uriah is given to both — 12,077 boys and 915 girls since 1880. See Uriah as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Uriah comes from the Hebrew Bible, where it belongs to Uriah the Hittite, the soldier in the second book of Samuel whose story is one of the sharpest in scripture. It carries three easy syllables and an old, formal shape that English kept intact through every translation. Puritan families brought it to America, and it has been in continuous use here ever since.
How old is the name Uriah?
Uriah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Uriah alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 11,500 people named Uriah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Uriah most popular?
Uriah peaked in 2014, reaching #504 nationally. Today it ranks #648, 144 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Uriah appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Uriyyah (Hebrew) to Uriah
The story of Uriah
The name is Hebrew, built from a word for light and a short form of the divine name, and it appears in the Hebrew Bible for several men, most memorably Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba. Greek translators wrote it Ourias, Latin Urias, and English Bibles settled on Uriah, which is the form that has stuck for four centuries. Protestant families in England took up Old Testament names in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Uriah crossed the Atlantic with them into colonial New England records. It has been used in America without interruption since, never in great numbers, never disappearing.
Meaning
the LORD is my light
From Hebrew Uriyyah: uri, "my light" or "my flame", joined to Yah, the shortened divine name. Some translators render the first element as "flame" rather than "light", but the two readings sit close together rather than competing.
How the name formed
- UriyyahHebrew
- OuriasGreek
- UriasLatin
- UriahEnglish
Related forms: Uriya · Urías · Urias · Ourias · Uria · Urias
Pronouncing Uriah
yoo-RY-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. In Hebrew the name runs oo-ree-YAH, with the weight at the end — worth knowing if the family uses both.
Nicknames for Uriah
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2014559 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #504reached in 2014
- Change vs 2023
- +12.1%427 in 2025, from 381
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.
Uriah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Uriya in Hebrew — transliteration
- Urías in Spanish — same name
- Urias in Latin — same name
- Ourias in Greek — transliteration
- Uria in Italian — same name
- Urias in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Uriahs among us
people named Uriah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,000 born in 2025 was named Uriah
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 Stephon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Uriah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Stephon climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Stephon's path sketches the road Uriah is walking now.
Uriah 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 Uriah is headed
Uriah 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.
Uriah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Uriah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A biblical name with an unbroken written record from the Hebrew scriptures through Greek and Latin into English, so its spelling and meaning are documented rather than guessed at.
- Uri is a ready-made short form that also stands alone as a given name in Hebrew.
- Recognizable across Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Hebrew-speaking families, since every Bible translation carries a version of it.
- Uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it in a classroom, but familiar enough that most people have heard it before.
- Dickens gave the name to Uriah Heep, the cringing hypocrite of David Copperfield (1850), and the English rock band that took his name kept the reference alive. Readers of a literary bent may make the connection; many people will not.
- In the Bible, Uriah the Hittite is the loyal soldier King David has killed. It is a sympathetic role, but a tragic one, and some families weigh that.
- Expect to correct the pronunciation now and then — yoo-RY-uh rather than OO-ree-ah — and to be asked whether it is spelled like Uriel or Isaiah.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Uriah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Uriah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Uriah
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #648 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Uriahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Uriah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Uriah in 2025?
- Uriah ranks #648 among US boy names in 2025, with 427 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Uriah?
- About 1 in every 4,000 US boys born in 2025 was named Uriah — 427 in all.
- Will my child share the name Uriah with classmates?
- Uriah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Uriah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Anakin#648 · Keanu#648 · Sam#647 · Chris#646 · Phillip#651 · Azael#645 · Otis#652 · Wayne#652
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Uriah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Uriah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle