Name Awesome

Mordecai

#2,100 in 2025Boys' name

Servant of Marduk

Mordecai has been given to 1,650 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #2,100 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 99 recorded.

Babies named Mordecai, 2025

1 in 47,400

Mordecai over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mordecai: meaning, origin, and history

Servant of Marduk

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mordecai means

Mordecai means “servant of Marduk”.

Origin, language, and formation

Mordecai is used in English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Mordecai is pronounced /ˈmɔː(ɹ)dəkaɪ̯/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,650 boys were recorded with the name Mordecai between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 99 in 2022; its best national rank was #1,716 in 2022.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,795 in 2020 to #2,100 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,318 in 2015 to #2,100 in 2025.

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 Mordecai?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 47,400
70 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 24,400
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,100
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
32,828 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mordecai sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 5001%

Put another way: gather 32,828 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mordecai. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mordecais were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mordecai was born before 2014 — so the typical Mordecai is around 11 today.

Median birth year
2014
About 11 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
31.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
69.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,456
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 31.2% of all recorded uses (514).

Is Mordecai 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
−49
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−305
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+218
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.23×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
70.7%
Peak was 2022 (99)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,716
2022

Spellings of Mordecai

Mordecai is not the most common spelling — Mordechai is, with 80.5% against Mordecai's 19.5%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Mordecai is used

Across 2016–2025, Mordecai was most concentrated in Missouri — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 42,037 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in 100,000).

14 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Missouri1 in 25,000
  2. 2Ohio1 in 25,000
  3. 3Florida1 in 33,333
  4. 4Indiana1 in 33,333
  5. 5Texas1 in 33,333
  6. 6California1 in 50,000
  7. 7Washington1 in 50,000
  8. 8Georgia1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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.

Mordecai around the world

Where Mordecai ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2003–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2013–2017
    #2,308
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1990–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Mordecai by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,100
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 305
Best rank ever
#1,716
2022
Peak year
2022
99 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,650
Count in 2025
70

Names similar to Mordecai

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

MorrisonMortimerMordechaiMordcheMorrellMoroccoMorgenZaccaiMorleyMordchaiMoritzMordchaMoroniMordekaiMalacaiMorrieMoreyMortonMorganMorseCaiMorrisMorrillMoreland

Sibling names for Mordecai

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 Mordecai

Top names of 2022, Mordecai's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2022Boys' names starting with M