Berklee
Feminine · “birch clearing”
Berklee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,242 girls against 27 boys since 1880.
Berklee is a respelling of Berkeley, an English place name that describes a wood: a clearing among birches. The -lee ending is American, and it is also the spelling of a well-known music college, which is where many people meet the word first.
How old is the name Berklee?
Berklee first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Berklee is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Berklee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Berklee most popular?
Berklee peaked in 2018, reaching #1656 nationally. Today it ranks #3130, 1,474 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Where it comes from
From Berkeley to Berklee
The story of Berklee
Berkeley is a village in Gloucestershire and a family name taken from it, and it traveled to America in both forms — as a surname and as a place name, most visibly the California city named after an eighteenth-century philosopher and bishop. The given-name use is recent and belongs to the American fashion for -ley, -leigh and -lee endings, which took Ashley, Kinsley and Everly in the same period. Berklee, with the doubled e, is the newest of the three spellings.
Meaning
birch clearing
From Old English beorc, birch, and leah, a clearing in woodland; the same leah closes Ashley, Bradley and Shirley.
How the name formed
- Berkeley
- Berklee
Related forms: Berkeley · Berkley
Pronouncing Berklee
BURK-lee
Two syllables, first stressed. The English village and family are said BARK-lee, and the California city is not.
Nicknames for Berklee
Moderate
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
- 1992
- Most girls named
- 2018127 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1656reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +10.9%51 in 2025, from 46
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.
Berklee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Berkeley in English — spelling variant
- Berkley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Utah, Indiana.
Berklees among us
people named Berklee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 31,515 born in 2025 was named Berklee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kelby test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Berklee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kelby climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kelby's path sketches the road Berklee is walking now.
Berklee 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
Where Berklee is headed
Berklee is easing off slowly — about 27% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Berklee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Berklee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, concrete meaning drawn from a real landscape.
- Two syllables and a familiar ending, so American readers say it correctly at once.
- It has a plain short form in Lee that will carry into adult life.
- Berkeley, Berkley and Berklee are three live spellings and the first is much better known.
- The music college association is strong and will invite a question about whether the family is musical.
- The -lee ending sits in a very crowded group of current girls' names.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Berklee to the vote.
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What they receive
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Berklee
Feminine · #3130 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Berklees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Berklee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Berklee in 2025?
- Berklee ranks #3130 among US girl names in 2025, with 51 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Berklee?
- About 1 in every 31,515 US girls born in 2025 was named Berklee — 51 in all.
- Will my child share the name Berklee with classmates?
- Berklee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Berklee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janylah#3130 · Robbie#3130 · Lillyanna#3130 · Bayla#3130 · Karmyn#3130 · Advika#3130 · Samari#3130 · Precious#3130
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Berklee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Berklee 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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