Mordche
A Yiddish diminutive form of Mordecai, a Hebrew masculine name meaning "warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 271 living Americans carry the first name Mordche. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mordche today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mordche births was 2023 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mordche. 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 Mordche with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
271
~ 1 in 1,264,776 Americans
Peak year
2023
22 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,812
Tracked since 2001
Popularity
Mordche: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mordche from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 121 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mordche remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mordche 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 Mordche during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mordches live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mordche
The name Mordche is a variant of the Hebrew name Mordechai, derived from the Persian name Mordekhai, which means "servant of Marduk" or "warrior." The name has its origins in the ancient Babylonian civilization, where Marduk was the chief god of the city of Babylon.
In the Hebrew Bible, Mordechai is a pivotal figure in the Book of Esther, where he is portrayed as a Jewish courtier living in Persia during the reign of King Ahasuerus. Mordechai plays a crucial role in foiling the plot of Haman, the king's vizier, to annihilate the Jewish people.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mordche can be found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, which mentions a sage named Mordechai. In the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity among Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland and Russia.
Notable historical figures with the name Mordche include Mordche Sholom Friedman (1828-1899), a prominent Hasidic rabbi and author from Poland, and Mordche Leib Grombach (1801-1892), a Russian-born Hebrew writer and educator.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous bearers of the name was Mordche Gebirtig (1877-1942), a Polish-Jewish poet and songwriter whose works chronicled the lives of Jewish communities in pre-World War II Poland. His song "Krakauer Lied" (Krakow Song) became a poignant testament to the vibrant Jewish culture that was nearly destroyed during the Holocaust.
Another notable figure was Mordche Mendel Levin (1887-1958), a renowned Yiddish linguist and lexicographer who played a significant role in preserving and documenting the Yiddish language.
Mordche Szymanowski (1887-1942) was a Polish-Jewish artist and painter whose works captured the life and culture of Polish Jewry before the Holocaust. Tragically, he perished in the Treblinka extermination camp during World War II.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Mordche, a name that carries with it a rich cultural and historical significance, particularly within the Jewish tradition.
People
Mordche + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mordche as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mordche: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mordche?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 271 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mordche 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 1,264,776 US residents.
Is Mordche a common name?
We classify Mordche as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 273 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mordche most popular?
The single biggest year for Mordche was 2023, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mordche is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Mordche in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mordche a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mordche in the SSA data are male. 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 Mordche still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mordche 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 Mordche 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Mordche?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.