Entry № 8603 · Hebrew origin

Rebecca Rebecca — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ rih-BEK-ah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"To bind (Rebecca Hall; Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Hebrew)

A name that means "to bind (rebecca hall; daphne du maurier's rebecca)".

Rebecca is the standard English spelling of the Hebrew Rivkah ("to bind, ensnare," suggesting something captivating) — the wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 24-27. Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938) — one of the great 20th-century English novels; the title character is the deceased first wife of Maxim de Winter whose memory haunts the new bride at Manderley; Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film adaptation (with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier) won Best Picture at the 13th Academy Awards — Hitchcock's only Best Picture winner. Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) — American writer; Men Explain Things to Me (2014) is credited with mainstreaming the term "mansplaining." Rebecca Welton — Hannah Waddingham's Emmy-winning role on Ted Lasso (2020-2023). Rebecca Black ("Friday" 2011). Saint Rebecca of Tsaghkadzor — Armenian.

To bind (Rebecca Hall; Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca) — a Hebrew name.

The name in its native script.

רִבְקָה
Transliteration
Rivkah
Pronunciation
/ rɪˈbɛk.ə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Rebecca stands.

Rebecca does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Rebeccas before her.

Real people
Rebecca Hall
British-American actress.
born 1982
Rebecca Solnit
American writer.
born 1961
In fiction
Rebecca
Du Maurier's Rebecca.
1938
Rebecca Welton
Ted Lasso.
2020

Names connected to Rebecca.

The number behind Rebecca.

1

The Leader

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Rebecca reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.