Bethania
A feminine name of Biblical origin meaning "house of the poor" or "house of affliction".
Name Census estimates that about 226 living Americans carry the first name Bethania. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bethania today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bethania births was 2017 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bethania. 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
226
~ 1 in 1,516,612 Americans
Peak year
2017
17 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,695
Tracked since 1969
Popularity
Bethania: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bethania from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 127 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
Bethania 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 Bethania during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bethanias live
Origin
Meaning and history of Bethania
The name Bethania has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew words "Beth" meaning "house" and "Aniah" meaning "affliction" or "humble." The name can be interpreted to mean "the house of the afflicted" or "the house of the humble."
Bethania was a village located near Jerusalem, mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible. It was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who were close friends of Jesus Christ. The village is significant in the Gospels as the place where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, one of his most famous miracles.
The earliest recorded use of the name Bethania dates back to the 4th century AD. One of the first notable individuals with this name was Saint Bethania, a 4th-century Christian martyr from Armenia. She was persecuted and executed for her faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
In the 12th century, Bethania was the name of a Benedictine nun and abbess of the Convent of Santa Maria in Zamora, Spain. She was known for her piety and devotion to the monastic life.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure named Bethania Gozzadini (1519-1590) was an Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts in Bologna, Italy. She was a member of the influential Gozzadini family and supported numerous artists and writers during her lifetime.
In the 17th century, Bethania de la Misericordia (1611-1677) was a Spanish nun and mystic from Seville. She was known for her visions and spiritual writings, and was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1867.
Another historical figure with the name Bethania was Bethania Wilkinson (1773-1825), an English Quaker minister and writer. She was active in the abolitionist movement and wrote several works advocating for the abolition of slavery.
While the name Bethania has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture and biblical references, it has been used throughout history in various regions and cultures, often associated with individuals of religious or spiritual significance.
People
Bethania + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bethania 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
Bethania: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bethania?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 226 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bethania 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 1,516,612 US residents.
Is Bethania a common name?
We classify Bethania as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 229 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bethania most popular?
The single biggest year for Bethania was 2017, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bethania is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Bethania a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bethania 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.
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.