Betty
Feminine · “my God is an oath”
Betty is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,001,238 girls against 3,619 boys since 1880. See Betty as a boy name
Betty is Elizabeth cut down and then set free. For a long stretch of the twentieth century it was not a nickname at all but one of the two or three most given names in the country, on certificates, with no Elizabeth standing behind it — and it arrived there having also spent centuries as an ordinary English word.
How old is the name Betty?
Betty was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Betty alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 354,000 people named Betty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Betty most popular?
Betty peaked in 1928, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #1113, 1,111 places below that high. See the whole 1928 chart.
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Betty
The story of Betty
Before it settled as a name the word had other work. A betty was a burglar's short crowbar, and a betty was a kitchen servant, and to call a man a betty was an insult about doing women's work — all of it in print, none of it flattering, and all of it gone now. What replaced it was advertising. In 1921 a flour company in Minneapolis needed a signature for the replies it sent to women who wrote in with baking questions, invented a woman to sign them, chose Betty because it sounded warm and ordinary, and attached a surname taken from a retiring director. Betty Crocker was voted the second most famous woman in America within twenty years, and she did not exist. The name was already climbing before her and kept climbing after.
Meaningscholars disagree
my God is an oath
Inherited from Elizabeth, whose Hebrew original is read either as an oath or as abundance. The short form carries the argument without adding to it.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elizabeth
- Betty
Related forms: Betti · Beti · Bettina
Pronouncing Betty
BET-ee
Two syllables, weight at the front, said exactly like the word. There is nothing to explain and nothing to correct.
Nicknames for Betty
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
- 193038,240 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 1928
- Change vs 2022
- +1.0%212 in 2025, from 210
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.
Betty in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Betti in German — spelling variant
- Beti in Spanish — spelling variant
- Bettina in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Bettys among us
people named Betty are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,581 born in 2025 was named Betty
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Helen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Betty's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Helen climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Helen's path sketches the road Betty is walking now.
Betty has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Betty is headed
Betty should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Betty beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Betty in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing, anywhere English is spoken.
- It works as a full name and as a short form of Elizabeth, which gives a family two ways to use it.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no ambiguity of any kind.
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language and places a person in time instantly.
- A fictional woman invented to sell flour is still the most famous bearer.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Betty to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Betty
Feminine · #1113 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bettys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 354,000 people named Betty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Betty in 2025?
- Betty ranks #1113 among US girl names in 2025, with 212 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Betty?
- About 1 in every 7,581 US girls born in 2025 was named Betty — 212 in all.
- Will my child share the name Betty with classmates?
- Betty will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Betty
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Clarissa#1113 · Mollie#1113 · Leena#1113 · Kacey#1117 · Ines#1109 · Imogen#1117 · Erika#1109 · Icelynn#1109
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Betty? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Betty and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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