Debarah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bee".
Name Census estimates that about 190 living Americans carry the first name Debarah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Debarah today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Debarah births was 1955 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Debarah. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Debarah is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Debarahs were born before 1969.
People living today
190
~ 1 in 1,803,970 Americans
Peak year
1955
20 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
1974 SSA rank
#7,921
Tracked since 1946
Census
Debarah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 170 people with the first name Debarah, which placed it at #42,346 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
#42,346
National first-name rank
People counted
170
170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Debarah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debarah is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Debarah 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 Debarah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.6% · 137
- Black or African American11.2% · 19
- Two or more races3.5% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Popularity
Debarah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Debarah from the 1940s through to the 1970s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 132 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Debarah 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 Debarah 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 Debarah
The name Debarah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Deborah, which means "bee" in Hebrew. The name is believed to have originated during ancient times, as early as the 12th century BC.
Deborah was a prominent figure in the Old Testament, a prophetess and judge who led the Israelites to victory against the Canaanites. Her story is recounted in the Book of Judges, where she is described as a wise and courageous leader.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Debarah can be found in the Geneva Bible, published in 1560. This English translation of the Bible rendered the Hebrew name as "Debarah," which later evolved into the modern spelling variations.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Debarah or its variations. One of the most famous was Debarah Samson (1837-1925), an American educator and advocate for women's rights. She founded the Debarah Samson School for Girls in Mississippi and worked tirelessly to promote education for African American women.
Another prominent figure was Debarah Moggach (born 1948), a British author and screenwriter known for her novels and adaptations, including the critically acclaimed film "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."
In the realm of politics, Debarah Muir (1951-2021) was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1988 to 2003, advocating for issues related to education and social services.
The name Debarah also has a place in the arts. Debarah Goldstein (born 1953) is an American painter and sculptor, renowned for her abstract and figurative works that explore themes of identity and human experience.
Lastly, Debarah Denise Curtis (born 1958) is an American singer and actress, best known for her roles in the musicals "Dreamgirls" and "The Wiz," as well as her successful recording career in the 1980s and 1990s.
People
Debarah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Debarah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Debarah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Debarah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 190 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Debarah 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 1,803,970 US residents.
Is Debarah a common name?
We classify Debarah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 260 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Debarah most popular?
The single biggest year for Debarah was 1955, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Debarah is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Debarah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 170 people with the name Debarah, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,346 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 Debarah 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 Debarah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Debarah leans strongly female. 173 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 4 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Debarah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debarah is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Debarah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Debarah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (137 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 Debarah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Debarah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Debarah 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 Debarah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Debarah 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 Debarah 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 named Debarah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Debarah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.