Tzipporah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bird" or "little bird".
Name Census estimates that about 373 living Americans carry the first name Tzipporah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tzipporah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tzipporah births was 2021 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tzipporah. 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
373
~ 1 in 918,912 Americans
Peak year
2021
20 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,352
Tracked since 1982
Popularity
Tzipporah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tzipporah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 119 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tzipporah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tzipporah 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 Tzipporah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tzipporahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tzipporah
The name Tzipporah is a Hebrew name that dates back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "tzippor," which means "bird." The name is believed to have originated in the Middle East, particularly in the regions that are now Israel and the Palestinian territories.
One of the earliest and most notable references to the name Tzipporah can be found in the Bible. In the Book of Exodus, Tzipporah was the name of the wife of Moses, the prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt. She was described as a Midianite woman and played a significant role in helping Moses overcome his initial reluctance to accept his divine mission.
The name Tzipporah has been used throughout Jewish history, although its popularity has waxed and waned over time. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. Tzipporah bat Penuel, a woman who lived in the 1st century CE, is mentioned in the Talmud for her wisdom and piety.
In the Middle Ages, the name Tzipporah was relatively uncommon, but it experienced a resurgence in popularity during the Renaissance period. Tzipporah Nunes (1510-1583), a Jewish woman from Portugal, was a renowned poet and scholar who wrote in both Hebrew and Portuguese.
Another notable figure named Tzipporah was Tzipporah Bat-Shlomoh (1595-1670), a Jewish mystic and poet from Poland. She is best known for her work "The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln," which provided a rare glimpse into the life of a Jewish woman in 17th-century Europe.
In more recent times, Tzipporah Rosenthal (1923-2014) was a renowned Israeli poet and playwright. She is considered one of the most influential figures in modern Hebrew literature and was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for her contributions to literature in 1999.
The name Tzipporah has also been used by other notable figures throughout history, such as Tzipporah Felitch (1915-2002), an American author and journalist, and Tzipporah Shalom (1936-2021), an Israeli artist and sculptor.
People
Tzipporah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tzipporah 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
Tzipporah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tzipporah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tzipporah 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 918,912 US residents.
Is Tzipporah a common name?
We classify Tzipporah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 379 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tzipporah most popular?
The single biggest year for Tzipporah was 2021, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tzipporah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tzipporah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tzipporah 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.