Beryl
Masculine · “a pale green gemstone”
Beryl is given to both — 2,338 boys and 10,130 girls since 1880. See Beryl as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Beryl is a gemstone name, and it is the gemstone that gave English one of its brightest adjectives. Early spectacle lenses were ground from beryl, the word for the stone traveled into Italian as brillare, to sparkle, and that is where brilliant comes from. German still calls a pair of glasses Brille for the same reason.
How old is the name Beryl?
Beryl first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Beryl alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 500 people named Beryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Beryl most popular?
Beryl peaked in 1912, reaching #584 nationally. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beryllos to Beryl
The story of Beryl
Beryl is not one stone but a family. Emerald is beryl colored green by chromium. Aquamarine is beryl colored blue-green by iron. Morganite is the pink one, colored by manganese, and heliodor is the yellow. All of them are the same compound, beryllium aluminum silicate, separated only by traces of other metals that got into the crystal while it grew. The stone sold as plain beryl is the one that came out of the ground with nothing coloring it, which makes the name a curious choice: it points not at the famous cousins but at the clear original they are all variations of. That is a better piece of naming than it first appears, and it is the part of the story most people who meet the name have never been told.
Meaning
a pale green gemstone
Greek beryllos, taken from an Indian source and probably from a place name in the south of the subcontinent. The word reached English through Latin and Old French as the name of the stone, and only later as a name for a child.
How the name formed
- beryllos
- beryl
- Beryl
Pronouncing Beryl
BERR-il
Two syllables with the stress at the front. It rhymes with peril and sits very close to feral, which is worth hearing aloud before deciding.
Nicknames for Beryl
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
- 1890
- Most boys named
- 191978 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #584reached in 1912
- Change vs 1981
- −16.7%5 in 1989, 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.
Beryls among us
people named Beryl 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
Beryl 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 is a real word with a clear, concrete sense rather than a borrowed abstraction.
- The spelling is short, unambiguous and never needs repeating.
- It belongs to the gemstone tradition without being one of the obvious three.
- The generation that made it common is now very old, and the name carries that plainly.
- It rhymes with peril, which some ears catch immediately and cannot unhear.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and a boy called Beryl today would be explaining it constantly, because the name has read as a girl's for a hundred years.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Beryl
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Beryls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Beryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Beryl in 2025?
- Beryl is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Beryl with classmates?
- Beryl 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 Beryl? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Beryl and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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