Berkley
Feminine · Old English roots · “birch tree clearing or meadow”
Berkley is given to both — 5,510 girls and 2,202 boys since 1880. See Berkley as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Berkley began as an English place: a clearing among birch trees in Gloucestershire, where the family who took the name built a castle that has stood since the twelfth century. The spelling traveled — to Scotland as Barclay, to California as Berkeley — and along the way it slipped from surname to first name. In the mouth it is two easy beats, BURK-lee, with the same -ley ending that runs through Ashley and Hadley.
How old is the name Berkley?
Berkley first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Berkley is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,500 people named Berkley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Berkley most popular?
Berkley peaked in 2021, reaching #798 nationally. Today it ranks #887, 89 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beorc + lēah (Old English) to Berkley
The story of Berkley
Berkeley is a village and manor in Gloucestershire, England, and the medieval family who held it carried the name outward as a surname. In Scotland the same name settled into the spelling Barclay; in England the line produced Berkeley Castle and, in the eighteenth century, the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, for whom the California city — and later its university — was named. Berkley is one of several long-standing spellings of that single surname, and like many English surnames it crossed into use as a given name in the United States, where it appears in the records for girls.
Meaning
birch tree clearing or meadow
From Old English beorc, 'birch', and lēah, 'wood, clearing, meadow' — the standard reading of the Gloucestershire place name Berkeley, from which the surname and all its spellings descend.
How the name formed
- beorc + lēahOld English
- BerkeleyEnglish place name
- Berkeleysurname
- Barclay
- Berkley
Related forms: Berkeley · Barclay · Berkely
Pronouncing Berkley
BURK-lee
Stress on the first syllable. British speakers say the older Berkeley as BARK-lee, so an English relative may reach for that vowel; in the United States BURK-lee is the settled reading.
Nicknames for Berkley
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 2021354 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #798reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −2.0%301 in 2025, from 307
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.
Berkley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Berkeley in English — spelling variant
- Barclay in Scots — related form
- Berkely in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, Iowa.
Berkleys among us
people named Berkley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,340 born in 2025 was named Berkley
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 Tatianna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Berkley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tatianna climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tatianna's path sketches the road Berkley is walking now.
Berkley 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 Berkley is headed
Berkley should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Berkley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Berkley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Built from a place name and surname documented in England since the Middle Ages — a long, unbroken written record behind the spelling.
- Two syllables, one stress, no silent letters in the American reading: most people say it right on first sight.
- Recognizable through the Berkeley family, the castle, the philosopher George Berkeley and the California city, so it is never a blank to an adult ear.
- Surname-style names carry easily across genders and ages, from a nursery to a business card.
- Fits the familiar -ley family of names without duplicating any of them.
- Three spellings compete for the same sound: Berkeley, Berkley and Barclay. Expect to spell it aloud often, and expect Berkeley in particular to be written back at you.
- In British and Irish English, 'berk' on its own is a mild insult for a fool. It is not widely known in the United States, but it is worth knowing before you settle on the short form.
- Berkeley, California carries strong political and academic associations for many adults, which will color first impressions in some rooms and not at all in others.
- As a surname turned given name it reads either way; American records place it with girls, so a boy named Berkley would be doing something less charted.
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What they receive
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Berkley
Feminine · Old English roots · #887 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Berkleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Berkley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Berkley in 2025?
- Berkley ranks #887 among US girl names in 2025, with 301 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Berkley?
- About 1 in every 5,340 US girls born in 2025 was named Berkley — 301 in all.
- Will my child share the name Berkley with classmates?
- Berkley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Berkley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Megan#887 · Aviana#887 · Vada#884 · Rebekah#884 · Tilly#884 · Lilianna#890 · Leanna#890 · Anais#892
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Berkley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Berkley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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