Entry № 2362 · Hebrew origin

Deborah Deborah — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ DEH-bor-ah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"Bee (biblical judge Deborah; Deborah Sampson)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Hebrew)

A name that means "bee (biblical judge deborah; deborah sampson)".

Deborah is from the Hebrew Devorah ("bee"). Her victory hymn after the defeat of the Canaanite general Sisera (the Song of Deborah, Judges 5) is considered one of the oldest passages in the Hebrew Bible — possibly dating to the 12th century BCE.

Young's Masquerade (2004) — biography of Deborah Sampson.

Bee. Only female judge in the Hebrew Bible; her victory song is among the Bible's oldest passages.

The name in its native script.

דְּבוֹרָה
Transliteration
Devorah
Pronunciation
/ ˈdɛb.ə.rə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Deborah stands.

Deborah does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Deborahs before her.

Real people
Deborah Sampson
American Revolutionary soldier.
1760 – 1827
Deborah Kerr
Scottish actress.
1921 – 2007
In fiction
Deborah
Book of Judges.

Names connected to Deborah.

The number behind Deborah.

8

The Visionary

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Deborah reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.