Mordechai
Mordechai was given to 238 boys in 2025, #967 among boys’ names; 6,821 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,650 Americans named Mordechai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mordechai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mordechai mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Mordechai is “a male given name of chiefly Jewish usage”
/ˈmɔʁdəˌxaɪ̯/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mordechai?
#967 among boys’ names, 2025
Mordechai rose from #1,104 in 2015 to #967 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.09 to 0.14 per 1,000.
315 babies in 2018, the peak
Mordechai peaked in 2018, when 315 boys were given it, #750 among boys’ names. The 238 births of 2025 are 76% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 238 | #967 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 237 | #959 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 243 | #933 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 233 | #972 | 0.13 |
| 2021 | 230 | #972 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 258 | #877 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 297 | #784 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 315 | #750 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 203 | #1,002 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 184 | #1,075 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 175 | #1,104 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 184 | #1,067 | 0.10 |
| 2013 | 197 | #997 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 200 | #999 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 183 | #1,039 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 162 | #1,147 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 165 | #1,124 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 146 | #1,207 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 148 | #1,192 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 136 | #1,235 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 146 | #1,124 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 153 | #1,056 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 169 | #964 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 124 | #1,149 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 129 | #1,105 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 116 | #1,182 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 106 | #1,206 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 112 | #1,128 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 114 | #1,111 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 89 | #1,253 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 88 | #1,236 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 96 | #1,163 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 62 | #1,500 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 86 | #1,213 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 75 | #1,297 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 62 | #1,425 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 73 | #1,274 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 68 | #1,244 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 48 | #1,497 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 50 | #1,412 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 50 | #1,380 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 40 | #1,550 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 57 | #1,213 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 44 | #1,458 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 49 | #1,355 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 34 | #1,717 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 41 | #1,482 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 47 | #1,340 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 37 | #1,532 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 32 | #1,666 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 32 | #1,617 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 16 | #2,523 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 28 | #1,688 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 22 | #1,954 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 26 | #1,767 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 21 | #1,970 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 14 | #2,378 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #3,026 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #2,914 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,574 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,719 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,505 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #3,555 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,224 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 9 | #3,036 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 10 | #2,804 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,330 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,838 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 11 | #2,594 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 9 | #2,845 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,083 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 8 | #2,949 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mordechai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mordechai has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 73 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mordechai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mordechai, and how old are they?
6,650 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 6,821 Americans ever recorded as Mordechai. The median Mordechai alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 4,847 people named Mordechai (3 women and girls, 4,844 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,326 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 65 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 349 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 988 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,270 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,970 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Mordechai born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 144 | #134 | 10.6× |
| New Jersey | 70 | #139 | 7.4× |
Where Mordechai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Mordechai is most over-represented in New York: since 1950 it was given 10.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Mordechai with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 6,884 babies since 1880, Mordechai is the most given (99% of them). In 2025 it was given to 238 of their 243 babies (98%), again the most given.
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 Mordechai
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 Mordechai and names like it
- Compare Mordechai and MordchaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sMordechai peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mordechai since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Mordechai: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Mordechai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Mordechai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.