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
Census
Bethania in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 556 people with the first name Bethania, which placed it at #19,177 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
#19,177
National first-name rank
People counted
556
556 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bethania
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bethania is Hispanic at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and White (6.3%). 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 Bethania 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 Bethania at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.9% · 400
- Black or African American20.7% · 115
- White6.3% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
- Two or more races0.2% · 1
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.
How common was Bethania in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 556 people with the name Bethania, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,177 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 Bethania 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 Bethania?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bethania leans strongly female. 555 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 7 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Bethania?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bethania is Hispanic at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (20.7%) and White (6.3%). 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 Bethania most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Bethania in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (400 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 Bethania in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Bethania still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bethania 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 Bethania 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 Bethania?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.