Deborah
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Deborah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 57th most common given name. Recorded meaning: Deborah represents divinely ordained female leadership and wisdom.
- IEIreland≈1 in 314(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 319
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 346
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #125 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 621 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 314 (inferred from the name graph)
622,217 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Deborah represents divinely ordained female leadership and wisdom. She is uniquely titled a 'Mother in Israel' (Judges 5:7), symbolizing her role as a protector and spiritual guide for the nation.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Deborah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #57 | 622,217 | 1 in 535 | 622K | Deborah | 621 |
| NG Nigeria | #60 | ≈370,000 est. | ≈1 in 580 | — | Deborah | 130 |
| GB United Kingdom | #59 | ≈210,000 est. | ≈1 in 319 | — | Deborah | 367 |
| IT Italy | #110 | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 580 | 20 | Deborah | 185 |
| EG Egypt | #444 | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 983 | — | Deborah | 32 |
| CA Canada | #69 | ≈82,000 est. | ≈1 in 460 | 7 | Deborah | 280 |
| AU Australia | #89 | ≈54,000 est. | ≈1 in 476 | 87 | Deborah | 285 |
| IE Ireland | #44 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 314 | — | Deborah | 121 |
| NZ New Zealand | #51 | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 346 | 12 | Deborah | 148 |
622,217 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Deborah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Her specific mention and the naming of her burial site ('Oak of Weeping') highlight the honor and affection accorded to faithful servants within the patriarchal narratives.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A name of Hebrew origin meaning 'bee', traditionally associated with industry, community, and sweetness.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A biblical name meaning 'bee', symbolizing industry, community, and sweetness.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Hebrew ‘bee’; later ‘eloquence’. Biblical name adopted by English Puritans and used in Ireland to anglicise Gobinet.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, A judge of Israel.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Deborah Kerrb. 1921GBBritish actress (1921–2007)
- Deborah Harryb. 1945USAmerican singer, songwriter and actress, frontwoman of Blondie (born 1945)
- Julie Kavnerb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Debbie Stabenowb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician (born 1950)
- Debbie Allenb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, choreographer, television director, television producer, singer, and dancer (born 1950)
- Debbie Roweb. 1958USnot in their usual nameformer wife of Michael Jackson
- Deborah Snyderb. 1963USAmerican film producer
- Deborah Ann Wollb. 1985USAmerican actress
- Déborah Françoisb. 1987BEBelgian actress
- Debby Ryanb. 1993USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 112 sources across 62 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 622K | #66 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 380 | #66 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 313 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 1980 | 87 | #86 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 1982 | 41 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 40 | — |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 20 | #586 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2005 | 12 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 7 | #583 |
Reference works 4
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Deborah come from?
- Deborah represents divinely ordained female leadership and wisdom. She is uniquely titled a 'Mother in Israel' (Judges 5:7), symbolizing her role as a protector and spiritual guide for the nation. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- What are other forms of the name Deborah?
- In the etymology graph, Debra, Debora and Débora are forms of the same name in other languages; Debbie, Deb and Debi are recorded short or pet forms.
- What does the name Deborah mean?
- Recorded meaning: Deborah represents divinely ordained female leadership and wisdom.
- Is Deborah a male or female name?
- Deborah is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Deborah have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 622 thousand people named Deborah, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled deborah.
- How common is the name Deborah?
- In the United States, the national register counted 622,217 people named Deborah in 2020, about 1 in 535 residents.
- How common is Deborah compared with other names?
- In the United States, Deborah is the 57th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Deborah?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/deborahThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Deborah” — the 57th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.