Pet form of Deborah, from Hebrew 'devorah' meaning 'bee.'
Debbie is an affectionate diminutive of Deborah, one of the great names of the Hebrew Bible. Deborah appears in the Book of Judges as a prophet, judge, and military leader — the only woman among the biblical judges — who commanded the Israelite forces to victory over the Canaanite general Sisera. Her name derives from the Hebrew devorah, meaning 'bee,' an emblem of industry, community, and the capacity to sting when necessary.
It was a name that carried extraordinary authority in its original context. The diminutive Debbie entered broad usage in the 20th century, peaking in the 1950s and 1960s in the English-speaking world when shorter, friendlier nickname-names were fashionable for girls. Debbie Reynolds — born Mary Frances Reynolds, she adopted her stage name — became one of Hollywood's most beloved stars of the era, her sunny screen presence in Singin' in the Rain (1952) making the name synonymous with effervescent charm.
Debbie Harry, the platinum-blonde front woman of Blondie, later gave the name an entirely different edge, placing it at the center of New York's punk and new wave scene in the late 1970s. Debbie has the double life of many mid-century nicknames: in constant use for decades, it acquired the faint patina of a particular era, which makes it simultaneously warm with nostalgia and ripe for reconsideration. The full Deborah never fully went out of fashion; Debbie, the stripped-down version, is now in the interesting position of aging back toward vintage charm — the name of someone's beloved grandmother, approaching the moment when a new generation will discover it fresh.