Bethany - Meaning of Bethany

What does Bethany mean?

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Bethany

[ 3 syll. bet-ha-ny, be-th-any ] The baby girl name Bethany is pronounced in English as BEH-TH-ah-Niy †. Bethany's language of origin is Hebrew and it is predominantly used in English. The meaning of Bethany is 'house of figs'. It is a biblical name derived from beth which means 'house' ; te'ena 'fig, fig tree'. In the Bible, Bethany was a city outside Jerusalem where Jesus stayed before the crucifixion. It has been a popular Roman Catholic name, often bestowed in honor of Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus who welcomed Jesus into her house.

In addition, Bethany is a familiar form of Bethan (Welsh and English) in the English language.

Bethany has 30 variants that are used in English and foreign languages. English variants of the name include Bathany, Bethane, Bethanea, Bethaneah, Bethann, Bethanne, Bethannie, Bethanny, Bethena, Bethenee, Betheney, Bethenny, Bethia, Bethina, Bethney, Bethny, and Petani. Other English forms include the contracted form Beth, and the spelling variants Bethanee, Bethaney, Bethani, Bethanie, Bethanney, Bethenie, and Betheny. Betana (Spanish), Betania (Hebrew), and Bethania (Spanish) are variants of Bethany that are used in foreign languages. The spelling variant Bethahnya (Spanish) is another foreign form.

See also the related categories, mary, tree (forest), jesus, english, hebrew, roman, biblical, sister, jerusalem, and city.

Bethany is a rather popular baby girl name. The name's popularity increased from the 1940s up to the 1980s; before that, it was of only irregular use. Its usage peaked modestly in 1987 with 0.176% of baby girls being named Bethany. It was #87 in rank then. The baby name has experienced a decline in popularity since then. In 2018, it ranked at #481 with a usage of 0.035%, but it was nevertheless the most popular among all girl names in its family.

Baby names that sound like Bethany include Bathany, Battseeyon, Battzion, Batzion, Bethenee, Betty Jane, Betty-Jean, Bettyjean, Batseyon, Betsan, and Botum.

† Pronunciation for Bethany: B as in "be (B.IY)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)" ; TH as in "theme (TH.IY.M)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"