Name Awesome

Deb

Girls' name

Bee, through Deborah

Deb has been given to 1,450 babies in the U.S. since 1953. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1958, with 236 recorded.

Babies named Deb, 1972

1 in 629,000

Deb over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Deb: meaning, origin, and history

Bee, through Deborah

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Deb means

Deb belongs to the name family reached through Deb → Deborah → דְּבוֹרָה. Its meaning is “bee”.

Origin, language, and formation

Deb is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Deborah and דְּבוֹרָה.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Deb is pronounced /dɛb/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,450 girls were recorded with the name Deb between 1953 and 1972. Its highest annual count was 236 in 1958; its best national rank was #642 in 1958.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Deb?

Deb had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1972, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1972
1 in 629,000
5 of 3,142,796 births
Among girls only
1 in 304,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1972
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
435,685 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Deb sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1972 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 435,685 children born in 1972 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Deb. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Debs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Deb was born before 1959 — so the typical Deb is around 66 today.

Median birth year
1959
About 66 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
53.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,450
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 53.2% of all recorded uses (771).

Is Deb rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1958 (236)
Years since peak
67
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
56.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#642
1958

Where Deb is used

Across 1910–2025, Deb was most concentrated in Michigan — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 70,983 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Michigan1 in 20,000
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 25,000
  3. 3South Dakota1 in 25,000
  4. 4Iowa1 in 33,333
  5. 5Nebraska1 in 33,333
  6. 6Ohio1 in 33,333
  7. 7Indiana1 in 50,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Deb has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Deb by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#642
1958
Peak year
1958
236 that year
First recorded
1953
Last recorded
1972
All-time count
1,450
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Deb

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

DebiDebanhiDebbiDeberaDebyDebieDebroahDebbraDebeDebbeDeborhaDebrahDebbyDebanyDebaraDebriaDebarDeboraDeborrahDeberahDeborhDebborahDebarahDeborra

Sibling names for Deb

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Deb

Top names of 1958, Deb's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1958Girls' names starting with D