Debe
Debe was last recorded in 1966, when 5 babies were given it; 122 Americans have been recorded with it between 1950 and 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Debe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Debe?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,801, in 1966; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
16 babies in 1957, the peak
Debe peaked in 1957, when 16 girls were given it, #2,954 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 5 | #6,801 | 3.0 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,599 | 3.7 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,613 | 4.7 |
| 1960 | 10 | #4,243 | 4.9 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,660 | 5.9 |
| 1958 | 15 | #3,120 | 7.5 |
| 1957 | 16 | #2,954 | 7.8 |
| 1956 | 7 | #4,940 | 3.5 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,835 | 3.6 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,039 | 4.6 |
Every recorded year (14)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 8 | #4,310 | 4.3 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,040 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 6 | #4,966 | 3.3 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,472 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Debe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Debe has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 14 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Debe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Debe, and how old are they?
An estimated 99 Americans named Debe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 166 people named Debe (155 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 106 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Debe rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 205,851 babies since 1880, Debe is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 24 babies recorded by SSA was a Debe (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Debe
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Debe and names like it
- Compare Debe and DebbieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sDebe peaked in 1957.
- The top names of 1957The year the most babies were named Debe.
- Names starting with DMost given first.