Deborah Saari

(female) Biblical name (meaning ‘bee’ in Hebrew), borne by the nurse of Rebecca (Genesis 35:8) and by a woman judge and prophet (Judges 4–5) who led the Israelites to victory over the Canaanites. It has always been popular as a Jewish name. It was in use among Christians by the mid 16th century and was taken up by the Puritans in the 17th century, in part because the bee was a symbol of industriousness. Since then it has enjoyed enormous popularity, peaking in the 1960s. Among other famous bearers is the actress Deborah Kerr (1921–2007).

Finnish: from saari ‘island’. Mostly, this is an ornamental name adopted during the name conversion movement at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, but it may also be a topographic name for someone living on or near an island. It is found chiefly in central and southern Finland. In America, it is also found as an abbreviation of names containing this element, such as Viitasaari.