girl's name
Debra
DEB-ruh
- Origin Hebrew
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 553,091
Scotland
#500
1995 births
Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee. It has fallen further than any other American name we hold — from 50,638 births in 1955 to 31 in the latest year, while Deborah itself peaked one year earlier and remains stable.
- Debra is a name of Hebrew origin.
- Peaked in 1955, when 50,638 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 106,952 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1914.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Debra over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 41 |
| 1920s | 94 |
| 1930s | 468 |
| 1940s | 5,435 |
| 1950s | 341,939 |
| 1960s | 154,181 |
| 1970s | 34,713 |
| 1980s | 9,854 |
| 1990s | 3,125 |
| 2000s | 1,213 |
| 2010s | 547 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 231 |
What Debra means
Debra means bee, carried unchanged from Deborah. The Hebrew word is the ordinary name of the insect, and the respelling alters the look of the name without touching its sense.
Where Debra comes from
Debra is Deborah written the way Americans said it, with the middle vowel dropped. The Hebrew Devorah means a bee, and it belongs in the Bible to the prophetess and judge who summons Barak against Sisera in the Book of Judges. The respelling is a twentieth-century American habit — the same impulse that gave Sherri for Sherry and Kathi for Kathy — and it arrived at the exact moment the parent spelling was at its height. What happened next is the interesting part: the two spellings peaked a year apart at almost identical size, and only one of them survived.
Debra in use
Debra peaked in the United States in 1955, when 50,638 babies were registered, and now ranks 4475th there on 31 births and 5263rd in England and Wales. That is the steepest decline of any American name in our data with a peak above 30,000. The contrast with its parent spelling is the striking part: the Deborah spelling reached a high of 54,754 births a year earlier, barely larger, and our data marks Deborah stable at 865th while Debra has effectively vanished. Two spellings of one name, and the respelling took the entire fall.
How popular is Debra?
In 2025, Debra was given to 31 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Debra 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.
Names that peaked alongside Debra
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Debra also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Debra over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Debra
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.
Debra 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 Debra
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Debra — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Debra
What does the name Debra mean?
Bee, from the Hebrew Devorah — the same meaning as Deborah.
Is Debra the same name as Deborah?
Yes, it is the phonetic respelling. But their fates differ sharply: Deborah is stable at 865th while Debra sits at 4475th.
Why did Debra decline so much?
It fell from 50,638 births in 1955 to 31 — the steepest decline of any American name in our data with a peak above 30,000.
How popular is Debra?
4475th in the United States on 31 births.
Is Debra a girl's or a boy's name?
Debra is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Debra?
Debra has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Debra?
Debra is usually shortened to Deb and Debbie.
Is Debra a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Debra currently ranks #4,475 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.