← Back to The Colonial Americas
Girl · Hebrew
Bathsheba
Say it: bath-SHEE-buh
Meaning
Hebrew Bat-sheva, 'daughter of' plus sheva, which can mean 'oath' or 'seven'; scholars differ on which was meant.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Occasionally given in Puritan and 19th-century families; Thomas Hardy used it for the heroine of Far from the Madding Crowd.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 354 babies given this name since 1951
- At its height in 1977, about 1 in 85,200 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Bethsabee
| French | Bethsabée |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Betsabé |
| Italian | Betsabea |
| German | Batseba |
| Hebrew | Bat-Sheva |
Famous bearers
- Bathsheba, wife of King David and mother of Solomon
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.