Bettie
Feminine · “my God is an oath”
Bettie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 38,395 girls against 83 boys since 1880.
Bettie is Elizabeth at three removes. Elizabeth gave Bet, Bet gave Betty, and Betty was respelled with the -ie that nineteenth-century American families preferred — a name reduced and then decorated again.
How old is the name Bettie?
Bettie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bettie alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 11,500 people named Bettie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bettie most popular?
Bettie peaked in 1882, reaching #131 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 9,326 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Bettie
The story of Bettie
Elizabeth was among the commonest women's names in English for four centuries and produced more short forms than any other: Bess, Bet, Betsy, Betty, Eliza, Libby, Beth. Betty was in ordinary use by the seventeenth century and became an independent legal name in the nineteenth. Bettie is the -ie spelling of it, belonging to the same American ending-fashion that gave Bessie, Nettie, Hattie and Jimmie, and it peaked around 1930.
Meaning
my God is an oath
Through Elizabeth, from the Hebrew Elisheva — el, 'God', and sheva, 'oath' or 'seven', which are linked in Hebrew. A second reading of the same elements gives 'my God is abundance'. Both are standard.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elizabeth
- Bet
- Betty
- Bettie
Related forms: Betty · Elisheva · Betti
Pronouncing Bettie
BET-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Bettie and Betty are said identically.
Nicknames for Bettie
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
- 19261,183 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #131reached in 1882
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%10 in 2025, from 10
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.
Bettie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Betty in English — spelling variant
- Elisheva in Hebrew — related form
- Betti in German — spelling variant
Betties among us
people named Bettie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Bettie
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
Bettie 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
Bettie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bettie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Elizabeth stands behind it as one of the deepest names in the language.
- The -ie ending is the older American spelling and reads warmer than the -y.
- Short, bright and easy for a child to write early.
- Betty is far commoner and will be assumed by anyone writing the name down.
- It is firmly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Bettie
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Betties are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Bettie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bettie in 2025?
- Bettie ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bettie?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Bettie — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bettie with classmates?
- Bettie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bettie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bettie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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