Bethaney
Feminine
Bethaney is a spelling of Bethany, the village where the Gospels place Lazarus and his sisters, and it is carried in this generation by a surfer who lost an arm to a shark at thirteen and went back into the water within weeks.
How old is the name Bethaney?
Bethaney first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Bethaney alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 600 people named Bethaney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bethaney most popular?
Bethaney peaked in 1990, reaching #2695 nationally. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Bethania to Bethaney
The story of Bethaney
Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, is the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha in the Gospels. The medieval lazar house and lazaretto, places for lepers and later for quarantine, take their name from a different Lazarus, the beggar in Jesus's parable, not the man of Bethany. English speakers took Bethany up as a given name in the twentieth century. In 2003 Bethany Hamilton, a thirteen-year-old surfer on Kauai, lost her left arm to a tiger shark; she was back on a board a month later and within two years had won a national title.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the biblical village of Bethany
Bethany begins with Hebrew or Aramaic beit, 'house'. The second half is read as 'figs', 'affliction' or a personal name, and none is settled.
How the name formed
- Bethania
- Bethany
- Bethaney
Related forms: Bethany · Bethania · Betania
Pronouncing Bethaney
BETH-uh-nee
Three syllables with the stress on the first.
Nicknames for Bethaney
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 199043 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2695reached in 1990
- Change vs 2013
- 0.0%5 in 2014, from 5
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.
Bethaney in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bethany in English — spelling variant
- Bethania in Latin — related form
- Betania in Spanish — related form
Bethaneys among us
people named Bethaney 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
Bethaney 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
- Sounds exactly like Bethany, a name most people know.
- Comes with Beth as a ready short form.
- Rooted in a biblical place with a long history.
- Almost everyone will write Bethany.
- It reads as a name of its era.
- Some will read the ey as a mistake rather than a choice.
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Bethaney
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Bethaneys 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 Bethaney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bethaney in 2025?
- Bethaney is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Bethaney with classmates?
- Bethaney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Barbara#968 · Betty#1113 · Brenda#1525 · Beverly#1016 · Brittany#928 · Bonnie#396 · Brianna#222 · Bertha#4546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bethaney? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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