Debora
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bee".
Name Census estimates that about 23,421 living Americans carry the first name Debora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Debora today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Debora births was 1957 (2,371 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Debora. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Debora with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Debora have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,634 Americans
Peak year
1957
2,371 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
1965 SSA rank
#2,110
Tracked since 1915
Census
Debora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 30,020 people with the first name Debora, which placed it at #1,251 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,251
National first-name rank
People counted
30K
30,020 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Debora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debora is White at 72.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Debora described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Debora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.9% · 21,890
- Hispanic or Latino13.7% · 4,118
- Black or African American9.3% · 2,805
- Two or more races2.4% · 716
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 329
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 162
Gender
Gender distribution for Debora
Out of the 30,083 babies given the name Debora since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Debora as a male name
- Ranked #3,311 in 1965
- 7 male births in 1965
- Peak: 1965 (7 births)
Debora as a female name
- Ranked #2,110 in 2024
- 90 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (2,371 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Debora appears almost entirely female. Of the 30,023 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Debora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Debora from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 14,930 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Debora by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Debora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Deboras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Debora, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 536 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Debora
The name Debora has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, believed to date back to biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "devorah," which means "bee." This association with bees and honey may have been a reference to sweetness or industriousness.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, Deborah was a prophetess and the only female judge mentioned in the Book of Judges. She is celebrated as a respected leader who guided the Israelites to victory against the Canaanites around 1200 BC. The biblical account of Deborah's life provides some of the earliest known historical references to this name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Debora was Debora Huana, a 16th-century Spanish playwright and poet. She was born around 1500 and is recognized for her works that challenged gender norms and advocated for women's rights during the Renaissance period.
In the 17th century, Debora Barnes, an English writer and educator, became known for her literary works and advocacy for women's education. She wrote several books, including "A Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and Happy Life" and "A Treatise on the Nature and Excellency of the Female Sex."
Debora Kodwo Adomako-Ansah, born in 1926, was a Ghanaian educator and women's rights activist. She played a significant role in promoting education for girls and women in Ghana and served as the first female director of education in the country.
Debora Weintraub, born in 1915, was an American sculptor and artist known for her abstract and figurative works. She studied at the Art Students League in New York and had exhibitions in various galleries and museums throughout her career.
Debora Spar, born in 1963, is an American academic and author. She served as the president of Barnard College from 2008 to 2017 and has written several books on gender issues, including "Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection" and "The Baby Struggle: How Modern Work Culture Reinvented Motherhood."
People
Debora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Debora as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Debora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Debora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,421 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Debora going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 14,634 US residents.
Is Debora a common name?
We classify Debora as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 30,083 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Debora most popular?
The single biggest year for Debora was 1957, when 2,371 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Debora is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Debora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 30,020 people with the name Debora, or 9.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,251 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Debora in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Debora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Debora appears almost entirely female. Of the 30,023 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Debora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debora is White at 72.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Debora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Debora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.9% (21,890 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Debora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Debora a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Debora in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Debora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Debora in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Debora can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Debora?
See how many people have the name Debora on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.