Bertha
Masculine · “Bright”
Bertha is given to girls far more often — 207,870 girls against 937 boys since 1880. See Bertha as a girl name
Bertha was once among the most ordinary names in America, and the shape of a life like that is worth describing honestly: a name can be everywhere, then somewhere, then almost nowhere, without anything about the name itself having changed. This one has been carried by queens, by saints, by a great many grandmothers, and by an artillery piece.
How old is the name Bertha?
Bertha first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Bertha alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. About 100 people named Bertha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bertha most popular?
Bertha peaked in 1900, reaching #490 nationally. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Berahta to Bertha
The story of Bertha
One Bertha changed the course of English history, and she has never had much credit for it. Bertha of Kent was a Frankish princess, already a Christian, who married the pagan king of Kent on the condition that she could keep her faith — and she arrived with a bishop in her household. She restored a ruined Roman church in Canterbury and worshipped there for years. When the mission from Rome landed in Kent, it landed in the one kingdom with a Christian queen, a functioning church and a household that already spoke the language of the newcomers. Her husband converted; England followed. The name has a gentler afterlife too: a bertha is a wide collar covering the shoulders of a low-necked dress, a garment fashionable in the last century, and the word has outlived the fashion in dressmaking dictionaries.
Meaning
Bright, shining
The Germanic element beraht means bright, and it stands inside Albert, Robert, Herbert and Bertram as well. Bertha is that element used alone, made into a woman's name — which is unusual: most Germanic names are compounds of two elements, and this one is a single word standing on its own.
How the name formed
- Berahta
- Bertha
Related forms: Berta · Berta · Berta · Berthe · Berta
Pronouncing Bertha
BUR-thuh
Two syllables, stress at the front, with the th of thick. German and Spanish speakers say BEHR-tah, without the th, which is closer to the original.
Nicknames for Bertha
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192724 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #490reached in 1900
- Change vs 1965
- −16.7%5 in 1986, 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.
Bertha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Berta in German — same name
- Berta in Italian — same name
- Berta in Spanish — same name
- Berthe in French — same name
- Berta in Polish — same name
Berthas among us
people named Bertha 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
Bertha 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
- The meaning is clean, settled and genuinely lovely, and it is shared with half the great Germanic names.
- It is spelled the same way across most of Europe, so it travels without explanation.
- It is now rare enough among children to be distinctive rather than dated in a classroom.
- The name was attached to an enormous siege gun of the First World War, and that association is still the first one many people reach for.
- It reads to most Americans as a great-grandmother's name, and a child carrying it will meet that reaction.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though almost all of it belongs to the girls.
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Bertha
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Berthas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Bertha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bertha in 2025?
- Bertha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Bertha with classmates?
- Bertha 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 Bertha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bertha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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