Bernice
Masculine · “bringer of victory”
Bernice is given to girls far more often — 182,130 girls against 3,403 boys since 1880. See Bernice as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Bernice alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 600 people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bernice most popular?
Bernice peaked in 1897, reaching #495 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 1921119 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #495reached in 1897
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%6 in 1993, from 6
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
Bernices among us
people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Bernice sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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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Bernice
Masculine
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 600 people named Bernice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bernice in 2025?
- Bernice is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Bernice with classmates?
- Bernice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Brian#339 · Benjamin#11 · Brandon#261 · Bryan#336 · Bruce#536 · Billy#1068 · Bobby#1097 · Bradley#403
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bernice? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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