Berlynn
Feminine · “Welsh llyn”
Lynn is the most productive suffix in the history of American girls' naming. It comes from a Welsh word for a lake, it became a middle name on millions of certificates in the 1940s, and it has since been attached to more than a thousand distinct first elements. Berlynn is one of them, and the ending has outlived every name that carried it.
How old is the name Berlynn?
Berlynn first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Berlynn alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 500 people named Berlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Berlynn most popular?
Berlynn peaked in 2014, reaching #3925 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,437 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From llyn to Berlynn
Our story of Berlynn
Our reading is that Lynn is the clearest example in American naming of a name becoming a morpheme. It arrives as a Welsh place word, becomes a surname, becomes a boy's name, crosses to girls in the 1920s, and by the late 1940s is on so many birth certificates as a middle name that it stops being heard as a name at all. At that point it becomes available as an ending, and the attachments begin: Jaclyn, Ashlyn, Katelyn, Brooklyn, Raelynn, Berlynn. Counting the distinct first elements it has been joined to runs into four figures. What is striking is the timing. The name Lynn itself was in steep decline by 1970 and is now rare, while the suffix has never been more productive. The element outlived its own name by fifty years, which is what happens when a piece of a language becomes useful independently of what it meant.
Meaningscholars disagree
Welsh llyn, lake
The -lynn ending descends from Welsh llyn, a lake, through the place name and surname Lynn and the mid-century American given name. The first element Ber- is not identifiable: it may come from Bernice, Bertha or Beryl, or from the sound alone. The compound is an American formation and carries no meaning as a whole. It peaks in 2014.
How the name formed
- llyn
- Lynn
- Berlynn
Pronouncing Berlynn
BUR-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Identical in sound to the German city, which is a coincidence and is not the source. bur-LIN with the stress at the end is occasionally heard.
Nicknames for Berlynn
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 201438 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3925reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +50.0%12 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.
Berlynn in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Berlynns among us
people named Berlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Berlynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Berlynn
- #8362
- Berlynn on the 2025 chart
- #890
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Berlynn went to 12 girls in 2025, but Berlin and Berlyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 70, which makes it the 890th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,472 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 22,961 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Berlynn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Chan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Berlynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chan climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chan's path sketches the road Berlynn is walking now.
Berlynn 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
Berlynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Berlynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lynn is a complete and recognizable short form.
- The ending is entirely familiar in American naming.
- The name is short and easy to say.
- It is a homophone of a major European capital.
- Berlyn and Berlynn are competing spellings.
- The first element carries no meaning.
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Berlynn
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Berlynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Berlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Berlynn?
- Berlynn is one of 3 recorded spellings. Berlin is the more common one — 39 births in 2025 against 12 for Berlynn.
- How popular is the name Berlynn in 2025?
- Berlynn ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Berlynn?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Berlynn — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Berlynn with classmates?
- Berlynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Berlynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Berlynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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