Zebedee
Masculine · “the Lord has given”
Zebedee is a father and almost nothing else: the Gospels name him as the father of James and John, mending nets in a boat when his sons are called away, and then say no more about him. His name is a Hebrew sentence saying that God has given.
How old is the name Zebedee?
Zebedee first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Zebedee alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 800 people named Zebedee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zebedee most popular?
Zebedee peaked in 1907, reaching #1094 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 3,951 places below that high. See the whole 1907 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Zevadyah to Zebedee
The story of Zebedee
The scene is short and vivid: two brothers leave their father in the boat with the hired men and go. Christian tradition made a great deal of the sons and very little of him, but the name entered English use after the Reformation along with the rest of the New Testament's minor figures, and it was given steadily in England and America through the nineteenth century. It has been quiet since, and for British readers of a certain age it now carries a children's television character.
Meaning
the Lord has given
Greek Zebedaios, from Hebrew Zavdi or Zevadyah, from a verb meaning to give or bestow, joined in the longer form to the divine name. The reading has never been disputed.
How the name formed
- Zevadyah
- Zebedaios
- Zebedee
Related forms: זבדי · Zebedeo · Zebedeo
Pronouncing Zebedee
ZEB-uh-dee
Three syllables, stress in front. There is no other reading in English.
Nicknames for Zebedee
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
- 1907
- Most boys named
- 202334 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1094reached in 1907
- Change vs 2023
- −44.1%19 in 2025, from 34
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.
Zebedee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- זבדי in Hebrew — transliteration
- Zebedeo in Spanish — same name
- Zebedeo in Italian — same name
Zebedees among us
people named Zebedee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Zebedee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Zebedee 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
Zebedee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zebedee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a complete sentence and a warm one.
- Zeb is a strong ready short form with an American history of its own.
- It is biblical without being one of the biblical names in heavy use.
- Its bearer has no story of his own, only a scene, so there is little to tell a curious child.
- For British readers it carries a well-known children's television puppet.
- Three syllables ending in -ee reads as light on a formal document.
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Zebedee
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zebedees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Zebedee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zebedee in 2025?
- Zebedee ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zebedee?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Zebedee — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zebedee with classmates?
- Zebedee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zebedee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zebedee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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