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“Bee” — Hebrew origin
Girl's name · #864 in the US (2025) · Heirloom
Deborah is an heirloom: its strongest era came around 1955, when it ranked #2. It has thinned since but never left the records — about 743,000 girls since 1880, ranked #864 today. In all that time it has never once missed a year of the national records. Deborah's short forms are Debbie and Debby. Earlier generations knew Deb — the standard of the 1950s. Together with its spelling variant Debora (#2336), Deborah would rank around #718 with about 390 births last year — the newborns split about 80/20 between Deborah and Debora.
Around the world: about 1 in 3,600 girls in Scotland (2025) · about 1 in 3,600 girls in Norway (2025) · about 1 in 3,700 girls in Canada (2024).
Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 24 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.
Among 1,445 notable people named Deborah:
Scientists & scholars appear 1.42× more often than among typical names — e.g. Deborah Lipstadt, American diplomat and Holocaust historian (born 1947).
Similar names: Debora · Sharon · Denise · Ann · Susan · Judith
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