Popularity of the name Rebecca, 1880–2025

Rebecca was at its most popular in 1974, when 15,163 girls were given the name: about 1 in 97 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #10. In 2025, 872 girls were named Rebecca, ranking #349. In all, Social Security counts 755,992 girls named Rebecca since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 2,114 boys named Rebecca.

Peak year

1974

Rank in 1974

#10

Babies in 1974

15,163

Rank in 2025

#349

Total since 1880

755,992

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #188 in 2015 to #349 in 2025: 1,728 girls got it in 2015, and 872 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 1970s, when 137,285 girls were named Rebecca, #13 for the decade. It ranked #105 in the 1880s and #310 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 236 in 1880 (#92), 503 in 1900 (#125), 1,269 in 1920 (#175), 2,555 in 1940 (#96), 9,970 in 1960 (#38), 15,281 in 1980 (#17), 7,078 in 2000 (#39) and 1,212 in 2020 (#248).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 16,737, in 1981. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more girls for 1981 than for 1974, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank in any year was #10, first reached in 1973.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Rebecca, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.