Bethany
- Pronunciation
- [Be-tha-ny]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- A Village Near Jerusalem Where Jesus Visited Mary: Martha And Lazarus.
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Bethany
Bethany descends from the Hebrew place-name Beit Anya (House of Affliction or House of Dates) — referring to the iconic biblical village of Bethany, located on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. The biblical Bethany was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (John 11), and Jesus traveled there many times during his Judean ministry. The Resurrection of Lazarus took place at Bethany.
The name has been used in English-speaking countries since the 17th century, particularly in Puritan-American naming. Notable bearers include American athlete Bethany Hamilton (born 1990, the iconic American professional surfer who, after losing her left arm in a shark attack in 2003 at age 13, returned to professional surfing within a year — anchoring the name in early-21st-century American sports memory and the 2011 film Soul Surfer).
Other notable bearers include American actress Bethany Joy Lenz (born 1981, the American actress of CW's One Tree Hill 2003–2012); American politician Bethany Stratton; and the contemporary American TikTok personality Bethany Mota (born 1995). Bethany held a US top-100 girls' rank from 1992 through 2005 — about fifteen years of consistent American popularity. The name has receded since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 girls' rank. The name's appeal is its layered Hebrew-biblical-religious pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built Bethany village biblical anchor (Resurrection of Lazarus), the strong Bethany Hamilton American sports cultural anchor, and tonal warmth distinctive to Hebrew-derived naming. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and the name reads as both classical-biblical and contemporary American. Common nicknames Beth (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm — also a popular standalone name on its own), Bethy, Anny, Bethie, and the rare Anya each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Bethany, Bethanie, and Bethanee have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Betania (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese), and the original Hebrew Beit Anya.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Bethany
US Popularity History (1983–2025)
Annual US births named Bethany by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1987 with 3,294 girls named Bethany (girl rank #87 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #752 for girls (362 US births). That's 665 places below its 1987 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Bethany Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Bethany the strongest states are Idaho, New Mexico, West Virginia.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Idaho | #284 | 21 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #315 | 17 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #345 | 15 |
| 4 | Nebraska | #363 | 19 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #410 | 246 |
| 6 | Kansas | #414 | 58 |
| 7 | Indiana | #415 | 157 |
| 8 | Nevada | #439 | 38 |
| 9 | Mississippi | #456 | 20 |
| 10 | Utah | #457 | 72 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #883 | 79 |
| 2 | New York | #769 | 174 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #747 | 51 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #745 | 19 |
| 5 | Florida | #719 | 199 |
| 6 | Georgia | #701 | 125 |
| 7 | Alabama | #677 | 60 |
| 8 | Michigan | #676 | 111 |
| 9 | Arizona | #669 | 90 |
| 10 | South Carolina | #662 | 48 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Bethany in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beth | Lively | Male | Scottish |
Famous People Named Bethany
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Bethany.
- Bethany Hamilton — Surfer (1990)
Looking for names like Bethany?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Bethany to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Bethany against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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