Zebediah
Zebediah was given to 18 boys in 2025, #5,390 among boys’ names; 622 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zebediah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zebediah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zebediah is “a male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.”
Variant of Zebadiah.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zebediah?
#5,390 among boys’ names, 2025
Zebediah rose from #7,056 in 2015 to #5,390 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 6.3 to 10.5 per million.
26 babies in 2007, the peak
Zebediah peaked in 2007, when 26 boys were given it, #4,006 among boys’ names. The 18 births of 2025 are 69% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18 | #5,390 | 10.5 |
| 2024 | 17 | #5,652 | 9.9 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,915 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 12 | #7,250 | 6.9 |
| 2021 | 13 | #6,686 | 7.4 |
| 2020 | 14 | #6,288 | 8.1 |
| 2019 | 17 | #5,548 | 9.5 |
| 2018 | 14 | #6,333 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | 18 | #5,290 | 9.7 |
| 2016 | 21 | #4,772 | 11.1 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 12 | #7,056 | 6.3 |
| 2014 | 18 | #5,247 | 9.4 |
| 2013 | 19 | #4,977 | 10.0 |
| 2012 | 14 | #6,298 | 7.4 |
| 2011 | 16 | #5,667 | 8.4 |
| 2010 | 11 | #7,575 | 5.7 |
| 2009 | 23 | #4,424 | 11.6 |
| 2008 | 21 | #4,706 | 10.3 |
| 2007 | 26 | #4,006 | 12.5 |
| 2006 | 16 | #5,518 | 7.8 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,625 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 18 | #4,787 | 9.1 |
| 2003 | 14 | #5,547 | 7.1 |
| 2002 | 15 | #5,121 | 7.7 |
| 2001 | 11 | #6,435 | 5.7 |
| 2000 | 18 | #4,380 | 9.2 |
| 1999 | 22 | #3,585 | 11.5 |
| 1998 | 24 | #3,291 | 12.6 |
| 1997 | 13 | #4,952 | 6.9 |
| 1996 | 12 | #5,178 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 7 | #7,783 | 3.7 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,358 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,627 | 3.6 |
| 1992 | 8 | #6,661 | 4.0 |
| 1991 | 10 | #5,510 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,927 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,779 | 5.2 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,939 | 3.2 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,516 | 3.2 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,307 | 3.3 |
| 1983 | 5 | #7,336 | 2.8 |
| 1982 | 9 | #4,587 | 5.0 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,464 | 3.9 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,519 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 16 | #2,893 | 9.3 |
| 1978 | 9 | #4,152 | 5.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zebediah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zebediah has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zebediah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zebediah, and how old are they?
An estimated 608 Americans named Zebediah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 10 and 28. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 443 people named Zebediah (5 women and girls, 438 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 526 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
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 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,734 babies since 1880, Zebediah is the second most given (36% of them). In 2025 it was given to 18 of their 49 babies (37%), again the second 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 Zebediah
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 Zebediah and names like it
- Compare Zebediah and ZebadiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sZebediah peaked in 2007.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Zebediah: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Zebediah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Zebediah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.