Bettina
Feminine · “Hebrew Elisheva”
Isabel is Elizabeth. Spanish reshaped the Hebrew name so thoroughly that the two have been treated as separate names for eight hundred years, and Bettina belongs to the same family from the other end, through Italian.
How old is the name Bettina?
Bettina first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Bettina alive today was born around 1966, making them about 59 years old. About 5,200 people named Bettina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bettina most popular?
Bettina peaked in 1965, reaching #714 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,393 places below that high. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Bettina
The story of Bettina
Elisheva is the wife of Aaron in Exodus and Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist, and the name spread across Christian Europe in forms that grew steadily further apart. In Spain and southern France the opening syllable was reanalysed and lost, giving Isabel, which then re-entered English as a separate name entirely; English speakers who would never guess it are using one name twice when they call one daughter Elizabeth and another Isabella. The diminutives are the richest set in Europe: Betty, Bess, Beth, Betsy, Libby, Lisa, Elsa, Ilse, Liesl, Babette, Bettina, Elsie and Tetty, which is what Samuel Johnson called his wife. Bettina is the Italian branch of that tree, and it is also a diminutive of Benedetta, so it carries two possible full names.
Meaning
Hebrew Elisheva, my God is an oath
Bettina is an Italian diminutive of Elisabetta or Benedetta. Elizabeth is from Hebrew Elisheva, generally read as my God is an oath or my God is abundance. Isabel is the Spanish and Occitan development of the same name, which is why the two look unrelated. The American peak is 1965.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabetta
- Bettina
Related forms: Bettina · Bettina · Elizabeth
Pronouncing Bettina
beh-TEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Italian and German say it the same way; the double t is held longer in Italian.
Nicknames for Bettina
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 1961168 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #714reached in 1965
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%9 in 2025, from 9
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.
Bettina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bettina in Italian — same name
- Bettina in German — same name
- Elizabeth in English — related form
Bettinas among us
people named Bettina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Bettina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Bettina
- #10107
- Bettina on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Bettina went to 9 girls in 2025, but Betina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,166 places above the chart.
- Betina10
- Bettina9
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Bettina itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ines test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bettina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ines climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ines's path sketches the road Bettina is walking now.
Bettina 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
Bettina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bettina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Betty and Tina are two short forms with very different registers.
- Elizabeth is available as a formal version.
- It is a current name in Italy and Germany.
- It reads as a diminutive, which some settings will notice.
- It will be heard as Bettina, Betina or Bettine.
- The 1965 peak dates its American use.
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Bettina
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bettinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,200 people named Bettina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Bettina?
- Bettina is one of 2 recorded spellings. Betina is the more common one — 10 births in 2025 against 9 for Bettina.
- How popular is the name Bettina in 2025?
- Bettina ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bettina?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Bettina — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bettina with classmates?
- Bettina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bettina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bettina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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