Tziporah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bird".
Name Census estimates that about 1,042 living Americans carry the first name Tziporah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tziporah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tziporah births was 2021 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tziporah. 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
1.0K
~ 1 in 328,939 Americans
Peak year
2021
55 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,558
Tracked since 1970
Popularity
Tziporah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tziporah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 331 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Tziporah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tziporah 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 Tziporah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tziporahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tziporah
Tziporah is a Hebrew name derived from the root tzipor, meaning "bird" in Biblical Hebrew. The name first appeared in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the name given to Moses' wife, who was a Midianite woman also known as Zipporah.
The name Tziporah is thought to have originated among the ancient Israelites, who inhabited the region of Canaan and the Levant during the Bronze Age and Iron Age periods, approximately between the 16th and 6th centuries BCE. It was likely a popular name among the Israelites due to its Biblical significance.
In the Book of Exodus, Tziporah is described as the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest, who became Moses' father-in-law after Moses fled Egypt and sought refuge in Midian. The name Tziporah is first mentioned when she and her sisters encountered Moses at a well and helped him water the flocks.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tziporah was the wife of Moses, who played a significant role in the Biblical narrative. According to the text, she saved Moses' life by performing a circumcision on their son, an act that appeased God's wrath.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tziporah. Tziporah bat Palti (c. 1600 BCE) was a prominent figure in the Book of Samuel, known for her wisdom and influence. Tziporah Nunes Vaz (1610-1649) was a Dutch writer and poet of Sephardic Jewish descent, recognized for her contributions to the Golden Age of Dutch literature.
Tziporah Lifshitz (1888-1975) was an Israeli politician and one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Tziporah Sanhaus (1904-1986) was a Polish-Israeli dancer and choreographer who founded the Inbal Dance Theater, one of Israel's leading dance companies.
Tziporah Berman (1912-1994) was an American artist known for her abstract expressionist paintings and her involvement in the New York art scene of the 1940s and 1950s. She was a member of the American Abstract Artists group and had several solo exhibitions at prominent galleries.
People
Tziporah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tziporah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tziporah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tziporah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,042 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tziporah 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 328,939 US residents.
Is Tziporah a common name?
We classify Tziporah as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,062 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tziporah most popular?
The single biggest year for Tziporah was 2021, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tziporah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tziporah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tziporah 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.