Betty
Masculine · “my God is an oath”
Betty is given to girls far more often — 1,001,238 girls against 3,619 boys since 1880. See Betty as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Betty alive today was born around 1936, making them about 89 years old. About 1,000 people named Betty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Betty most popular?
Betty peaked in 1932, reaching #429 nationally. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 1934170 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #429reached in 1932
- Change vs 1985
- +20.0%6 in 1988, 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.
Betty in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Betti in German — spelling variant
- Beti in Spanish — spelling variant
- Bettina in Hungarian — related form
Bettys among us
people named Betty 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
Betty 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
- 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.
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What they receive
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Betty
Masculine
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 1,000 people named Betty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Betty in 2025?
- Betty is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Betty with classmates?
- Betty 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 Betty? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Betty and another name?
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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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