Bernice
Feminine · “bringer of victory”
Bernice is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 182,130 girls against 3,403 boys since 1880. See Bernice as a boy name
A queen with this name cut off her hair, gave it to a temple, and it was stolen; the court astronomer announced that the gods had taken it into the sky, and pointed at a faint cluster of stars. That constellation is still on modern star charts under her name, and it is the only one named for a real person.
How old is the name Bernice?
Bernice was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bernice alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 41,000 people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bernice most popular?
Bernice peaked in 1921, reaching #39 nationally. Today it ranks #4067, 4,028 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Where it comes from
From Pherenike to Bernice
The story of Bernice
Berenice the Second was queen of Egypt in the third century before Christ. When her husband went to war she vowed her hair to a temple for his safe return; the hair was duly cut and dedicated, and then it vanished. The court astronomer Conon, needing an explanation that would please everybody, identified a dim scattering of stars near the Lion as the offering, taken up into the heavens. The name stuck. There is a second thing worth knowing about the name: Veronica is generally held to be the same word, reshaped in Latin by people who thought they saw vera icon, true image, inside it, so the two names are one.
Meaning
bringer of victory
The Greek compound joins a verb meaning to bring with the word for victory. The Macedonian dialect said the first element differently from Attic Greek, which is why the name looks the way it does.
How the name formed
- Pherenike
- Berenike
- Bernice
Related forms: Berenike · Berenice · Berenice · Berenice · Veronica
Pronouncing Bernice
bur-NEESS
Two syllables with the weight at the back. The fuller Berenice takes three or four, and Italian and Spanish give it four with the stress on the third.
Nicknames for Bernice
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19216,190 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #39reached in 1921
- Change vs 2022
- −16.7%35 in 2025, from 42
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.
Bernice in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Berenike in Greek — transliteration
- Berenice in Italian — same name
- Berenice in Spanish — same name
- Berenice in French — same name
- Veronica in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Bernices among us
people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 45,922 born in 2025 was named Bernice
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 Gertrude test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bernice's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gertrude climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gertrude's path sketches the road Bernice is walking now.
Bernice 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 Bernice is headed
Bernice 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.
Bernice beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bernice in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a form in every European language and is recognized across all of them.
- The meaning is settled, positive and unusually easy to explain.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept, and a documented history two thousand years longer than that.
- It is strongly associated with the early twentieth century in America.
- Berenice, Bernice and Burnice are all in the record and will be offered.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
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What they receive
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Bernice
Feminine · #4067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bernices are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 41,000 people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bernice in 2025?
- Bernice ranks #4067 among US girl names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bernice?
- About 1 in every 45,922 US girls born in 2025 was named Bernice — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bernice with classmates?
- Bernice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bernice
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#4067 · Peace#4067 · Medina#4067 · Darlin#4067 · Anja#4067 · Sparrow#4067 · Liani#4067 · Salina#4067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bernice? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bernice and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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