Mordecai

MAWR-duh-kie

Hebrew

"follower of Marduk"

Mordecai Origin and Meaning

The name Mordecai is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "follower of Marduk".

Mordecai, although it has a noble heritage, has never caught on in this country, because of its rather weighty image. Nevertheless, with parents searching for rarer Biblical names that work as alternatives to Malachi and Matthew, Mordecai has seen increased interest in recent years and was given to 74 boys in the US in 2024.

Mordecai is a symbolic name for boys born on the holiday of Purim, because this cousin of Queen Esther helped her save the Jews from destruction at the hands of Haman.

Mordecai Richler was a Canadian author and screenwriter whose best known work is The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

Mordecai Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 1020 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Mordecai

• 1020 Nameberry 2025
• 941 Unique 2023

20 Names Similar to Mordecai

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Mordecai.

• Tiberius
• Romulus
• Balthazar
• Leonidas
• Amadeus
• Marcellus
• Ulysses
• Constantine
• Lazarus
• Octavian
• Octavius
• Fabian
• Marius
• Alastor
• Ignatius
• Cyril
• Albus
• Cato
• Valentin
• Inigo

Famous People Named Mordecai

• Mordecai who returned to Judah with Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 7:7)
• Mordecai servant of King Ahasuerus (possibly Xerxes I); cousin of Queen Esther, who helped save the Hebrews
• Mordecai Richler Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist
• Mordecai Peter Centennial "Three Finger" Brown American baseball player
• Mordecai Menahem Kaplan Lithuanian,American rabbi and educator

The name Mordecai in Pop Culture

• Mordecai the Blue Jay character on TV's "Regular Show"
• Mordecai Richie's pet hawk in movie "The Royal Tenenbaums"
• Mordecai character in video game "Borderlands"
• Mordecai Ali van Allen O'Shea made,up name from "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss
• Mordecai Cohen Mirah's consumptive brother, a visionary young Jew, in "Daniel Deronda" (1874,6) by George Eliot
• Mr Mordecai character in "The Absentee" (1812) by Maria Edgeworth
• Mordecai Himmelfarb ex,professor of English, a Jewish immigrant to Austria, in Patrick White's "Riders in the Chariot" (1961)
• Mordecai Jones legendary con man in "The Ballad of the Flim,Flam Man" (1965, rev. 1967) by Guy Owen

International Variations of the name Mordecai

• Motl Yiddish
• Motke Yiddish