girl's name
Deborah
DEB-uh-ruh
- Origin Hebrew
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 788,401
the United States
#865
2025 births
Deborah is a girl's name from the Hebrew for bee, borne by the only woman to lead Israel as a judge. Our data marks it stable rather than falling, and it charts in six of the seven markets we track.
- Deborah is a name of Hebrew origin.
- Peaked in 1954, when 54,754 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 10,592 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Deborah over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 143 |
| 1890s | 183 |
| 1900s | 226 |
| 1910s | 651 |
| 1920s | 1,070 |
| 1930s | 2,814 |
| 1940s | 44,140 |
| 1950s | 431,325 |
| 1960s | 183,931 |
| 1970s | 48,070 |
| 1980s | 14,849 |
| 1990s | 7,579 |
| 2000s | 4,284 |
| 2010s | 3,429 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,784 |
What Deborah means
Deborah means bee. The Hebrew word is the ordinary name of the insect, and its use as a name may carry the associations of industry and organized community that bees held in the ancient world.
Where Deborah comes from
Deborah is the Hebrew Devorah, a bee. Two women carry it in the Hebrew Bible: Rebecca's nurse, and far more importantly the prophetess and judge who appears in the Book of Judges — the only woman among Israel's judges, who summons Barak to battle against Sisera and delivers the Song of Deborah, one of the oldest passages in the Hebrew Bible. The name entered English use after the Reformation with the wave of Old Testament names, and Puritan families favored it for exactly the reason the biblical figure suggests: it named a woman with public authority.
Deborah in use
Deborah peaked in the United States in 1954, when 54,754 babies were registered — a very high single-year figure — and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It ranks 582nd in England and Wales on 68 births, 674th in Ireland, 865th in the United States on 313, 946th in Scotland and 1142nd in France, across 788,401 lifetime births in six of the seven markets we track.
How popular is Deborah?
In 2025, Deborah was given to 313 babies in the United States, ranking #865 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Deborah is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Deborah is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Déborah | Déborah is Deborah written with an acute accent, used in France, where it ranks #1,142. | 4,740 |
Names that peaked alongside Deborah
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Deborah also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Deborah over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
3 nicknames for Deborah
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Deborah in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Deborah
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Deborah — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Deborah
What does the name Deborah mean?
Bee, from the Hebrew Devorah.
Who was Deborah in the Bible?
A prophetess and the only woman among Israel's judges. The Song of Deborah is one of the oldest passages in the Hebrew Bible.
Is Debra the same name?
Yes, a twentieth-century respelling that was popular in its own right.
How popular is Deborah?
865th in the United States, and our data marks it stable rather than falling.
Is Deborah a girl's or a boy's name?
Deborah is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Deborah?
Deborah has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Deborah?
Deborah is usually shortened to Deb, Debbie and Debby.
Is Deborah a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Deborah currently ranks #582 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.