Bee
Feminine
Bee is given to both — 677 girls and 1,023 boys since 1880. See Bee as a boy nameSee other names given to both
American records are full of names that began as a spoken initial and stayed: Bee, Dee, Cee, Em, Jay, Kay, Vee, Zee. A letter said aloud is already a syllable, and once it is written on a school roll it is a name. Bee is the oldest and most used of them.
How old is the name Bee?
Bee first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Bee alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. About 200 people named Bee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bee most popular?
Bee peaked in 1883, reaching #817 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,100 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From B to Bee
The story of Bee
Two habits made names like this. The first is the initial: a household with three Bs uses the letters aloud, and the letter follows the child out of the house. The second is the clip: Beatrice becomes Bea, and Bea and Bee sound identical, so the spelling is chosen by whoever is holding the pen. There is a third thing the word does that is not related to either. The bee in spelling bee, quilting bee and husking bee is probably not the insect at all: it is a dialect word for a gathering of neighbors to get work done, and the resemblance to the busy insect is a coincidence people liked well enough to stop questioning.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Bee has no etymology of its own. It stands either for the letter B or for whatever name it shortened — Beatrice, Beatrix, Bernice, Bertha, Belle — and the meaning belongs to that name rather than to this one. The insect and the letter are homonyms; neither is a source.
How the name formed
- B
- Bee
Pronouncing Bee
BEE
One syllable, identical to the letter B and to the insect. There is nothing to get wrong, which is most of the appeal.
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 191727 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #817reached in 1883
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bees among us
people named Bee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Bee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Bee sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Bee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable: it survives a bad phone line and a loud room.
- It serves a boy or a girl without any adjustment at all.
- There is no long form to be filed under, so the name on the certificate is the name in use.
- Everyone will assume it is short for something and will ask what.
- There is no formal version to fall back on, which some people want and some very much do not.
- Short names occasionally fail the minimum-length check on forms and websites, and that is a small lifelong nuisance.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a girl, so the few boys will be misread on paper.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Bee to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bee
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Bee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bee in 2025?
- Bee ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bee?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Bee — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bee with classmates?
- Bee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bee and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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