Devora
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bee" or "diligent worker".
Name Census estimates that about 2,550 living Americans carry the first name Devora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Devora today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Devora births was 2023 (93 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Devora. 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 Devora with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 134,413 Americans
Peak year
2023
93 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,133
Tracked since 1915
Census
Devora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,486 people with the first name Devora, which placed it at #6,449 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
#6,449
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,486 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Devora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Devora is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Black (10.7%). 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 Devora 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 Devora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.4% · 1,701
- Hispanic or Latino19.2% · 477
- Black or African American10.7% · 267
- Two or more races0.7% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 6
Popularity
Devora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Devora from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 588 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Devora remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Devora 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 Devora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Devoras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Devora, while California, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 547 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Devora
The name Devora is a Hebrew name derived from the Biblical Hebrew word "devorah," meaning "bee." It has its origins in ancient Israel and the Middle East, where beekeeping was an important part of the agricultural economy.
The name first appears in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, where Devorah was a prophetess and the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel. She lived in the 12th century BCE and played a pivotal role in leading the Israelites to victory against the Canaanites. Her story is recorded in chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Judges.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Devora was Devora Bobtelna, a 12th-century Jewish scholar and poet from Provence, France. She was renowned for her religious writings and her contributions to the development of Hebrew poetry.
In the 16th century, Devora Salom was a prominent Jewish writer and philosopher from Salonica, Greece. She was known for her work "Mexilat Yesharim," which explored ethical and moral issues.
During the 17th century, Devora Baronessa was a Dutch-Jewish author and translator. She is best known for her Dutch translation of the Hebrew Bible, which was published in 1679.
Devora Baum, born in 1888 in Krakow, Poland, was a renowned Yiddish poet and writer. She immigrated to the United States in 1905 and became an influential figure in the Yiddish literary world, publishing several collections of poetry and short stories.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Devora, which has its roots in ancient Hebrew and the biblical tradition. The name's association with the biblical prophetess Devorah and its meaning related to bees and nature have contributed to its enduring popularity among Jewish communities worldwide.
People
Devora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Devora 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
Devora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Devora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,550 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Devora 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 134,413 US residents.
Is Devora a common name?
We classify Devora as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,800 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Devora most popular?
The single biggest year for Devora was 2023, when 93 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Devora is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Devora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,486 people with the name Devora, or 0.82 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,449 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 Devora 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 Devora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Devora appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,485 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Devora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Devora is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Black (10.7%). 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 Devora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Devora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.4% (1,701 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 Devora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Devora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Devora 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 Devora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Devora 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 Devora 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 many Americans are named Devora?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Devora at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.