Bekah
A feminine diminutive of the Hebrew name Rebecca meaning "to tie firmly".
Name Census estimates that about 204 living Americans carry the first name Bekah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bekah today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bekah births was 2004 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bekah. 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
204
~ 1 in 1,680,168 Americans
Peak year
2004
13 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2021 SSA rank
#10,415
Tracked since 1976
Census
Bekah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 653 people with the first name Bekah, which placed it at #17,051 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
#17,051
National first-name rank
People counted
653
653 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bekah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bekah is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Bekah 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 Bekah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.8% · 554
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 53
- Two or more races3.4% · 22
- Black or African American1.8% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Bekah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bekah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 64 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
Bekah 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 Bekah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bekah
The name Bekah is a feminine given name derived from the Biblical Hebrew name Rivkah, which means "ensnarer" or "captivating." This name has its origins in ancient Israel and is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where Rivkah is the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau.
The name Rivkah is thought to have evolved from the Hebrew root word "ravak," which means "to tie" or "to ensnare." The name Bekah is a shortened form of Rivkah, likely arising as a nickname or diminutive form of the longer name. This shortening of names was a common practice in ancient Hebrew culture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bekah is in the biblical account of Rivkah's life, which is believed to have been written around the 5th century BCE. In this account, Rivkah is described as a beautiful and virtuous woman who played a pivotal role in the continuation of the Abrahamic lineage.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Bekah or its variations. One of the earliest was Bekah bat Avraham, a 12th-century Jewish scholar and poet from Spain. Another was Bekah Polonaise, a 16th-century Jewish woman who was known for her philanthropic efforts in Poland.
In more recent times, the name Bekah has been carried by several notable figures, including Bekah Brunstetter, an American playwright and television writer born in 1983, and Bekah Martinez, an American reality television personality born in 1995, who appeared on the 22nd season of the popular show "The Bachelor."
Other historical figures with the name Bekah include Bekah Shamgar, a 17th-century Sephardic Jewish scholar and kabbalist, and Bekah Fatima, a 19th-century Egyptian feminist and activist who fought for women's rights in the Ottoman Empire.
While the name Bekah has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has been embraced and adapted by various cultures and communities throughout history, reflecting the universality and enduring appeal of this captivating name.
People
Bekah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bekah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bekah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bekah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 204 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bekah 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 1,680,168 US residents.
Is Bekah a common name?
We classify Bekah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 208 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bekah most popular?
The single biggest year for Bekah was 2004, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bekah is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bekah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 653 people with the name Bekah, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,051 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 Bekah 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 Bekah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bekah appears almost entirely female. Of the 652 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Bekah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bekah is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Bekah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bekah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.8% (554 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 Bekah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bekah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bekah 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 Bekah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bekah 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 Bekah 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 have the name Bekah?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Bekah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.