Urijah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "YHWH (the LORD) is my light".
Name Census estimates that about 3,703 living Americans carry the first name Urijah. It is a predominantly male name (97.7% of registrations). The average person named Urijah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Urijah births was 2009 (420 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Urijah. 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 Urijah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Urijah is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 85 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Urijah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 92,561 Americans
Peak year
2009
420 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,624
Tracked since 2000
Census
Urijah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,734 people with the first name Urijah, which placed it at #6,014 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
#6,014
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,734 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Urijah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Urijah is White at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.0%) and Two or More Races (10.2%). 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 Urijah 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 Urijah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.2% · 1,126
- Hispanic or Latino34.0% · 930
- Two or more races10.2% · 280
- Black or African American8.3% · 226
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.5% · 97
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 75
Gender
Gender distribution for Urijah
Urijah leans heavily male at 97.7% of total registrations, but 85 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Urijah as a male name
- Ranked #2,624 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (403 births)
Urijah as a female name
- Ranked #14,223 in 2016
- 7 female births in 2016
- Peak: 2009 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Urijah leans strongly male. 2,666 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 73 female bearers (2.7%).
Popularity
Urijah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Urijah from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,635 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Urijah 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 Urijah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Urijahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Urijah, while Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 71 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Urijah
The name Urijah is derived from the Hebrew name Uriyah, which means "the Lord is my light" or "flame of the Lord." This name has its origins in ancient Israel and the Middle Eastern region during biblical times.
The earliest recorded example of the name Urijah is found in the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a priest during the reign of King Ahaz in Judah, around the 8th century BCE. The book of Isaiah in the Old Testament refers to this Urijah the priest.
Another notable figure named Urijah in the Bible was a prophet from Kirjath-Jearim, mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. He was executed by King Jehoiakim of Judah for prophesying against the kingdom, around the 7th century BCE.
In the Apocryphal book of 2 Esdras, there is a reference to an Urijah who was one of the principal men who returned from the Babylonian captivity with Ezra the scribe, in the 5th century BCE.
Moving on to later historical records, Urijah was the name of a Jewish scholar and philosopher who lived in the 11th century CE in Kairouan, Tunisia. He was known for his work on Hebrew grammar and his commentary on the Bible.
Another notable bearer of the name Urijah was a 17th-century English Puritan minister, Urijah Oakes, who served as the president of Harvard College from 1675 to 1681.
In more recent times, Urijah Faber was an American mixed martial artist and former WEC Featherweight Champion, born in 1979. He is considered one of the pioneers of the lighter weight classes in mixed martial arts.
People
Urijah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Urijah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with U
Other first names starting with U with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Urijah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Urijah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,703 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Urijah 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 92,561 US residents.
Is Urijah a common name?
We classify Urijah as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,733 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Urijah most popular?
The single biggest year for Urijah was 2009, when 420 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Urijah is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Urijah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,734 people with the name Urijah, or 0.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,014 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 Urijah 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 Urijah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Urijah leans strongly male. 2,666 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 73 female bearers (2.7%). 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 Urijah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Urijah is White at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.0%) and Two or More Races (10.2%). 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 Urijah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Urijah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.2% (1,126 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 Urijah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Urijah a male name?
Yes, 97.7% of people registered as Urijah in the SSA data are male. 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 Urijah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Urijah 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 Urijah 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 Urijah?
See how many Americans are named Urijah on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.