Bertie
Feminine · “Bright”
Bertie is given to both — 13,736 girls and 856 boys since 1880. See Bertie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Bertie is a pet form that has been a full name for two centuries, a surname that produced a line of earls, and — thanks to one comic novelist — a permanent English shorthand for a particular kind of amiable young man.
How old is the name Bertie?
Bertie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bertie alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 1,900 people named Bertie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bertie most popular?
Bertie peaked in 1886, reaching #154 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 8,706 places below that high. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Bertha to Bertie
The story of Bertie
The surname came first in England and then went backwards. A family called Bertie held the earldom of Lindsey and later a dukedom, which is how a first name that had been worn down into a nickname ended up as an aristocratic surname and then back again as a given name — a full circle that names occasionally manage and that is almost impossible to document afterwards. The comic version is better known. Wodehouse gave his amiable, well-meaning, entirely ineffectual narrator the name Bertie, and after a hundred years of those books the word carries that character in England whether or not the person using it has read one.
Meaning
Bright
Whatever long name it shortens — Bertha, Alberta, Roberta, Albert, Bertram — the same Germanic element sits inside: beraht, bright. That is an unusually tidy outcome for a pet form whose parent cannot be identified.
How the name formed
- Bertha
- Bertie
Pronouncing Bertie
BUR-tee
Two syllables, stress at the front. Identical to Birtie and Burtie.
Nicknames for Bertie
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
- 1928396 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #154reached in 1886
- Change vs 2023
- −26.7%11 in 2025, from 15
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.
Berties among us
people named Bertie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Bertie
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
Bertie 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
Bertie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bertie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is warm on sight, as pet forms are, and easy at any age.
- The meaning inside it is clean and positive whichever long name it came from.
- It is coming back into use after a long absence, which suits a name of this age.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- In Britain the name carries a comic character with it.
- There is no single long form to fall back on.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bertie
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Berties are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Bertie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bertie in 2025?
- Bertie ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bertie?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Bertie — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bertie with classmates?
- Bertie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bertie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bertie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bertie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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