Rebeca
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "securely bound".
Name Census estimates that about 12,741 living Americans carry the first name Rebeca. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rebeca today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rebeca births was 2003 (422 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rebeca. 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 Rebeca with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,902 Americans
Peak year
2003
422 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
1986 SSA rank
#1,269
Tracked since 1888
Census
Rebeca in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 23,568 people with the first name Rebeca, which placed it at #1,435 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
#1,435
National first-name rank
People counted
24K
23,568 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rebeca
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rebeca is Hispanic at 83.4%. The next largest groups are White (13.6%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Rebeca 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 Rebeca at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino83.4% · 19,667
- White13.6% · 3,205
- Black or African American1.3% · 304
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 204
- Two or more races0.6% · 142
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 46
Gender
Gender distribution for Rebeca
Out of the 14,030 babies given the name Rebeca since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Rebeca as a male name
- Ranked #7,578 in 1986
- 5 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1986 (5 births)
Rebeca as a female name
- Ranked #1,269 in 2024
- 183 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (422 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rebeca appears almost entirely female. Of the 23,561 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Rebeca: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rebeca from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,121 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rebeca 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 Rebeca during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rebecas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Rebeca, while Mississippi, South Carolina, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 329 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rebeca
The name Rebeca is derived from the Hebrew name Rivkah, which is the Biblical name of the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. The name Rivkah is thought to come from the Hebrew word "ribqah," meaning "ensnarer" or "captor."
The name Rebeca first appeared in the Old Testament's Book of Genesis, where Rivkah is introduced as the daughter of Bethuel and the wife of Isaac. She is described as a kind and beautiful woman who played a significant role in the story of the patriarchs.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Rebeca dates back to the 13th century, when it was used by a Jewish woman in Spain. The name became more widespread in Europe during the Renaissance period, particularly in Spain and Portugal.
Notable historical figures who bore the name Rebeca include Rebeca Lobo (1646-1721), a Spanish-Portuguese writer and advocate for women's rights; Rebeca Grynspan (born 1955), a Costa Rican diplomat and former Vice President of Costa Rica; and Rebeca Aghion (1882-1956), a Greek-Jewish teacher and philanthropist who helped rescue Jewish children during the Holocaust.
In literature, the name Rebeca has been used by several authors, including Sir Walter Scott in his novel "Ivanhoe" (1819), where Rebeca is a Jewish woman who falls in love with the Saxon knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe.
Another famous Rebeca was Rebeca Ariana Menchu (1804-1892), a Mexican poet and writer who was one of the first women to publish her works in Mexico. Her poetry focused on themes of love, nature, and patriotism.
In the 19th century, Rebeca Mérida (1833-1913) was a Salvadoran poet and educator who fought for women's rights and education. She founded several schools for girls and published a collection of her poetry.
The name Rebeca has also been used by several actresses, including Rebeca Guaty (born 1979), an Argentine-American actress known for her roles in television series like "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Daytime Divas."
People
Rebeca + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rebeca as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rebeca: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rebeca?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,741 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rebeca 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 26,902 US residents.
Is Rebeca a common name?
We classify Rebeca as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,030 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rebeca most popular?
The single biggest year for Rebeca was 2003, when 422 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rebeca is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rebeca in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 23,568 people with the name Rebeca, or 7.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,435 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 Rebeca 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 Rebeca?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rebeca appears almost entirely female. Of the 23,561 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 Rebeca?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rebeca is Hispanic at 83.4%. The next largest groups are White (13.6%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Rebeca most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Rebeca in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (19,667 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 Rebeca in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rebeca a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rebeca 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 Rebeca still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rebeca 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 Rebeca 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 people are called Rebeca?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.