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Urijah

Masculine · “the Lord is my light”

Urijah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,693 boys against 85 girls since 1880.

2000high 2009
#2833 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare44 boys in 2025

Urijah is light. The Hebrew joins the word for a flame to the divine name, and the result is one of the more visual sentences in the biblical stock — not a quality or a wish but an image.

How old is the name Urijah?

Urijah first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Urijah is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,700 people named Urijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Urijah most popular?

Urijah peaked in 2009, reaching #619 nationally. Today it ranks #2833, 2,214 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.

Compare this nameMore “U” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Urijah

Uriah the Hittite is Bathsheba's husband in the book of Samuel, and the story is not a flattering one for David: he sends Uriah to the front and orders the troops around him withdrawn. The text treats Uriah as the honorable man in the episode. A different Uriah is a priest in Kings, and a prophet of the name appears in Jeremiah. English took the name up with the Reformation. The Urijah spelling, with a j for the y sound, follows an older English convention and reaches American records mostly through it.

Meaning

the Lord is my light; flame of the Lord

Hebrew Uriyah is ur, 'light, flame', with Yah, the shortened divine name. The reading is documented and not disputed. The same ur element gives Uriel, 'God is my light', and stands at the front of Uri, which is a complete name in modern Hebrew.

How the name formed

  1. Uriyah
  2. Urias
  3. Uriah
  4. Urijah

Related forms: Uriyah · Uriah · Urías

Pronouncing Urijah

yoo-RY-uh

Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Hebrew says oo-ree-YAH, with the stress at the end and no y sound at the front. The j in this spelling is said as a y in Hebrew and is silent as a consonant in the English saying.

Nicknames for Urijah

Moderate

UriThe front of the name, and a complete given name in its own right in modern Hebrew
RyeTaken from the middle of the name
JahTaken from the back of the name, which is the divine element
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

BOYS NAMED · 2000–202540320204034420002025

US babies named Urijah per year from 2000 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#6192000s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
2000
Most boys named
2009403 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#619reached in 2009
Change vs 2024
−13.7%44 in 2025, from 51
Urijah sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 2009, with 403 boys. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Urijah in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Uriyah in Hebrew — same name
  • Uriah in English — spelling variant
  • Urías in Spanish — same name

Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.

Urijahs among us

3,700

people named Urijah are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 boy in 38,820 born in 2025 was named Urijah

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

III

Is it right for you

The Hayward test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Urijah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hayward climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hayward's path sketches the road Urijah is walking now.

40%chance Urijah will feel “very 2010s” by 2040
Urijah, aligned on its peakHayward· peak 1903not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-20 yrs+70 yrsHayward · #1714Urijah today
Urijah today is about where Hayward stood in 1919 — 16 years past a #619-sized peak. By 1934, Hayward had settled around #693.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Urijah 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 Urijah is headed

20002030

US babies named Urijah per year, 2000 to 2025, with a projection to 2030

Urijah is easing off slowly — about 30% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.

Cooling-30% by 2030projected around #3,625 in 2030

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.

Urijah beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Urijah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Urijahthis name44#2833Bayron44#2833Odysseus44#2833Mahlon44#2833Ward44#2833

US boys given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • A vivid, exact meaning built on an image rather than an abstraction.
  • Uri is a ready short form and a complete name in modern Hebrew.
  • Distinctive without being invented, and easy to say once heard.
What to consider
  • A Dickens villain carries the name Uriah, and it is the association many older readers reach for.
  • Uriah's biblical story is one of betrayal, though he is its wronged party rather than its villain.
  • Urijah and Uriah are both in use, and the j will be dropped by most people writing it.

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Urijah

Masculine · #2833 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Urijahs are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Urijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How popular is the name Urijah in 2025?
Urijah ranks #2833 among US boy names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Urijah?
About 1 in every 38,820 US boys born in 2025 was named Urijah — 44 in all.
Will my child share the name Urijah with classmates?
Urijah will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Urijah

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Bayron#2833 · Odysseus#2833 · Mahlon#2833 · Ward#2833 · Jarvis#2833 · Abriel#2833 · Alain#2833 · Josef#2833

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Urijah? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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