Debrah
Hebrew feminine name meaning "bee".
Name Census estimates that about 3,295 living Americans carry the first name Debrah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Debrah today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Debrah births was 1954 (312 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Debrah. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Debrah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.3K
~ 1 in 104,023 Americans
Peak year
1954
312 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2021 SSA rank
#15,825
Tracked since 1934
Census
Debrah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,743 people with the first name Debrah, which placed it at #4,082 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
#4,082
National first-name rank
People counted
4.7K
4,743 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Debrah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debrah is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Black (14.2%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Debrah 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 Debrah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.0% · 3,605
- Black or African American14.2% · 674
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 248
- Two or more races2.9% · 137
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 30
Popularity
Debrah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Debrah from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 2,373 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
Debrah 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 Debrah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Debrahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Debrah, while Oregon, Nebraska, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 78 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Debrah
The name Debrah is a feminine given name with Hebrew origins, derived from the word "devorah," which translates to "bee" in English. Its roots can be traced back to ancient biblical times, with the earliest known reference appearing in the Book of Judges, where Deborah is portrayed as a prophetess and judge who led the Israelites to victory against the Canaanites.
One of the earliest recorded individuals bearing this name was Deborah, the biblical figure mentioned above, who lived around the 12th century BCE. Her story is recounted in the Book of Judges, where she is depicted as a wise and influential leader who played a pivotal role in the military and political affairs of ancient Israel.
During the Middle Ages, the name Debrah gained popularity among Jewish communities across Europe. It was particularly common in Spain and Portugal before the expulsion of Jews from these regions in the late 15th century. One notable figure from this period was Deborah ben Samuel Halevi, a Jewish poet and scholar who lived in Spain during the 12th century.
In the 17th century, the name Debrah found its way into English-speaking regions, where it was often spelled as "Deborah." One of the most famous bearers of this name was Deborah Sampson, an American woman who disguised herself as a man and fought in the Revolutionary War during the late 18th century.
Another notable figure was Deborah Moody, an English Puritan who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s and founded the settlement of Gravesend, which later became part of Brooklyn, New York. She was a prominent advocate for religious freedom and women's rights during her lifetime.
In the 20th century, one of the most renowned individuals with the name Debrah was Debrah Paget, an American actress and model who was born in 1933 and gained fame for her roles in various Hollywood films, including "The Ten Commandments" and "The Princess and the Pirate."
People
Debrah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Debrah 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
Debrah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Debrah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,295 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Debrah 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 104,023 US residents.
Is Debrah a common name?
We classify Debrah as "Rare". It ranks above 95.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,404 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Debrah most popular?
The single biggest year for Debrah was 1954, when 312 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Debrah is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Debrah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,743 people with the name Debrah, or 1.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,082 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 Debrah 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 Debrah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Debrah appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,741 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Debrah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Debrah is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Black (14.2%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Debrah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Debrah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.0% (3,605 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 Debrah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Debrah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Debrah 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 Debrah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Debrah 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 Debrah 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 Debrah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.