Bert
Masculine
Bert is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 33,585 boys against 657 girls since 1880. See Bert as a girl name
Bert is the ending of at least six different Germanic names, registered on its own since American records began, and which one a given family had in mind is not recoverable. The English word for financial ruin describes a piece of furniture being destroyed.
How old is the name Bert?
Bert was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bert alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 10,500 people named Bert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bert most popular?
Bert peaked in 1880, reaching #47 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,648 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Bert
A bankrupt is a broken bench. The word comes from the Italian banca rotta, and the bench is literal: medieval money changers and merchant bankers worked at a table in the marketplace — the banca that gives English bank — and the story, repeated in law books for centuries, is that a dealer who could not meet his obligations had his table broken so that he could not trade from it. Whether the smashing was ever a formal legal act or just a phrase is debated by historians, but the image is old and consistent. The same word gives bank, banquet, banquette and mountebank, who was a quack standing up on a bench to sell his remedies to a crowd.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The element it consists of means bright, and it closes Albert, Herbert, Robert, Gilbert, Norbert and Hubert among others. Registered alone it points back to all of them and to none in particular.
Pronouncing Bert
BURT
One syllable. In accents that pronounce the r it is identical to the surname-derived Burt, and in accents that do not the two are indistinguishable either way.
Nicknames for Bert
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 boys named
- 1918698 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #47reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −50.0%6 in 2025, from 12
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.
Bert in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Berts among us
people named Bert are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Bert
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Bert 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
Bert beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bert in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable is quick, clear and hard to mishear across a room.
- It is understood instantly and needs no introduction anywhere.
- Any of several formal names can stand behind it if one is wanted.
- Burt is a separate name with a different origin and will be written for it.
- It reads as a short form even when it is the registered name.
- It is strongly associated with a particular stretch of the last century.
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Bert
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Berts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,500 people named Bert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bert in 2025?
- Bert ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bert?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Bert — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bert with classmates?
- Bert will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bert
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bert? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bert and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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