Beulah

About Beulah

Beulah is a Hebrew biblical name meaning married. In Isaiah it describes a restored land, and in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress it becomes a country near the end of the spiritual journey. Its English pronunciation, BYOO-luh, gives an unusual sound to a name once widely used for American girls.

Meaning and biblical setting

Isaiah 62:4 contrasts abandonment and desolation with a renewed relationship between the land and God. The land will be called Beulah, married, while another name in the verse, Hephzibah, expresses delight.

Beulah therefore begins in this passage as a name for a place rather than an individual woman. The marriage imagery describes restoration and belonging. English-speaking Christians later adopted it as a feminine personal name, with use dating from the Protestant Reformation.

The Hebrew form is written בְּעוּלָה. Its English shape preserves an opening byoo sound and an unstressed final syllable. Bee could serve as a suggested everyday shortening, though the full name has only two syllables.

Bunyan's country of Beulah

Near the conclusion of The Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and Hopeful reach the country of Beulah after leaving the Enchanted Ground. The air is pleasant, birds sing, flowers bloom, and the sun shines continuously.

Bunyan places this country beyond the reach of Giant Despair and out of sight of Doubting Castle. The pilgrims can see the city toward which they are traveling and encounter its inhabitants. The setting is a place of assurance after the dangers and uncertainties of the earlier journey.

The literary use carries the biblical name into a Christian allegorical landscape. Beulah is near the destination rather than the destination itself, creating a sense of rest and anticipation before the final crossing.

Beulah Bondi on screen

Actor Beulah Bondi offers a familiar twentieth-century bearer. She repeatedly played mothers of characters portrayed by James Stewart, including Ma Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, released in 1946.

The pairing extended across several films and later into television. Bondi's full first name gives Beulah a recognizable screen association independent of the biblical and literary places from which the personal name developed.

Bondi also won a 1977 Emmy for The Waltons, in the category for a leading actress making a single appearance in a drama or comedy series. The later television honor extended a screen career already familiar through her film roles.

American popularity

Beulah reached its strongest United States girls' ranking in 1903, at #72. Its largest annual count came in 1916, with 2,401 births. It remained at #477 in 1950 before becoming much less frequent.

Only seven girls received it in 2000, compared with twenty in 2025. Its main American generation belongs to the early twentieth century. The older biblical and literary associations remain much more enduring than its recent birth numbers suggest.

How popular is Beulah?

In 2025, Beulah ranked #5,948 among girls in the United States, with 20 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 2,401 in 1916. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.