Abdias
Servant or worshipper of God, of Hebrew origin.
Name Census estimates that about 864 living Americans carry the first name Abdias. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdias today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdias births was 2016 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdias. 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.
People living today
864
~ 1 in 396,706 Americans
Peak year
2016
49 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,867
Tracked since 1975
Census
Abdias in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,050 people with the first name Abdias, which placed it at #12,014 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
#12,014
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,050 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdias
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdias is Hispanic at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.2%) and White (2.1%). 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 Abdias 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 Abdias at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino80.6% · 846
- Black or African American16.2% · 170
- White2.1% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 5
- Two or more races0.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Abdias: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdias from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 347 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abdias remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdias 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 Abdias during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abdias' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Abdias, while Georgia, Florida, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdias
The name Abdias is a Spanish and Portuguese variant of the Hebrew name Obadiah, which means "servant of the Lord" or "worshipper of Yahweh". It is derived from the Hebrew words "ebed" meaning servant and "Yah" referring to the name of God.
The name Obadiah first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible as the name of a minor prophet who authored the Book of Obadiah. This book is one of the shortest books in the Old Testament and is believed to have been written around the 6th century BCE.
Abdias was a relatively common name among Sephardic Jews, who were the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the late 15th century. It was also adopted as a Christian name in these regions.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Abdias was Abdias of Babylon, a Christian philosopher and writer who lived in the 3rd or 4th century CE. He is known for his work "Historia Certaminis Apostolici", which is a collection of apocryphal stories about the lives of the apostles.
Another notable figure named Abdias was Abdias of Persia, a Christian missionary and bishop who lived in the 5th century CE. He is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is celebrated on July 15th.
In the 16th century, Abdias Treu (also known as Abdias Praetorius) was a German Lutheran theologian and historian who wrote a book titled "Annales Regum et Rerum Syriae" about the history of Syria.
During the 17th century, Abdias Mauricius was a Dutch engraver and printmaker known for his portraits and religious works.
In the 18th century, Abdias Bichof was a German painter and engraver who specialized in landscapes and architectural scenes.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Abdias, which has its roots in the Hebrew language and religious traditions.
People
Abdias + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdias as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Abdias: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdias?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 864 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdias 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 396,706 US residents.
Is Abdias a common name?
We classify Abdias as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 875 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdias most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdias was 2016, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdias is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdias in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,050 people with the name Abdias, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,014 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 Abdias 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 Abdias?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdias leans strongly male. 1,033 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 20 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Abdias?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdias is Hispanic at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.2%) and White (2.1%). 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 Abdias most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Abdias in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (846 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 Abdias in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdias a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdias 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 Abdias still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdias 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 Abdias 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 Abdias?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.