Hezekiah
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- God Is My Strength
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Hezekiah
Hezekiah descends from the Hebrew Chizqiyahu meaning "Yahweh strengthens" or "God is my strength" — composed of chazaq (strong) and yah (Yahweh). The biblical Hezekiah is the iconic 13th king of the Kingdom of Judah (c. 729–687 BCE), described in 2 Kings 18 and 2 Chronicles 29–32 as one of the most-righteous kings of Judah who eradicated idol worship and led the iconic resistance against the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE.
The name has been used continuously across Christian Old Testament-revival traditions for centuries, particularly common in Puritan-American naming. Notable bearers include American basketball player Hezekiah Williams; the iconic American Civil War figure Hezekiah Hayward; and the contemporary fictional Hezekiah of various contemporary novels.
Hezekiah's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Christian-American, Mormon-American, and African-American Old Testament-revival naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Hebrew-Old Testament-righteous-king-religious pedigree, the in-built distinctive God-is-my-strength etymological register, and the popular four-syllable -kiah ending family (Hezekiah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Zachariah). Four flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to Hebrew-derived naming. The name reads as both classical-biblical and contemporary American. Common nicknames Hez (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Heze, Kiah (back-end shortening), Zeke (alternate, a popular standalone name on its own), and the rare Kia each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Hezekiah, Hizkia, and Hezekiel have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Ezequías (Spanish, with accent), Ézéchias (French), Esechia (Italian), and the original Hebrew Chizqiyahu.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Hezekiah
US Popularity History (2006–2025)
Annual US births named Hezekiah by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 626 boys named Hezekiah (boy rank #490 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #485 for boys (621 US births). That's 5 places above its earlier 2024 peak — the name is more popular now than it has ever been.
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 Hezekiah Most Popular?
Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Hezekiah the strongest states are Hawaii, New Mexico, Nebraska.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #121 | 102 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #274 | 76 |
| 3 | Nebraska | #404 | 18 |
| 4 | Arkansas | #447 | 36 |
| 5 | Mississippi | #457 | 21 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | #467 | 82 |
| 7 | Nevada | #483 | 18 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #490 | 22 |
| 9 | Kansas | #490 | 63 |
| 10 | Missouri | #492 | 110 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #890 | 40 |
| 2 | New York | #812 | 133 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #736 | 22 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #703 | 53 |
| 5 | Illinois | #688 | 125 |
| 6 | Tennessee | #660 | 99 |
| 7 | Minnesota | #651 | 70 |
| 8 | Georgia | #627 | 138 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #608 | 130 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #604 | 37 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Hezekiah in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Hezekiah?
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 Hezekiah to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Hezekiah against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).