Birtha
Feminine · “bright”
One letter separates this spelling from the English word for being born, and there is no getting round it. Bertha with an e reads as a German name; Birtha with an i reads as something to do with birth, and every English speaker meeting it will make that connection whether or not it was intended.
How old is the name Birtha?
Birtha was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Birtha alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 400 people named Birtha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Birtha most popular?
Birtha peaked in 1900, reaching #611 nationally. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Berahta to Birtha
The story of Birtha
Charlemagne's mother carried the name and medieval French remembered her by her feet. She appears in the chansons as Berthe au grand pied — Bertha of the big foot — and a whole romance was built around the epithet, involving a substituted bride, a servant girl who takes her place, and the real queen found years later living in a forest and identified by the foot. The historical woman was a Frankish noblewoman who arranged her sons' marriages and outlived her husband by decades. What survived was the nickname, and nobody now knows whether it described anything real.
Meaning
bright, famous
A Germanic element meaning bright or shining, used on its own as a name rather than as half of a compound. The sense is secure and has nothing to do with the English word the spelling resembles.
How the name formed
- Berahta
- Bertha
- Birtha
Related forms: Bertha · Berthe · Berta
Pronouncing Birtha
BUR-thuh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The i and the e are said identically in this position, so the spelling changes the look and not the sound.
Nicknames for Birtha
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
- 192667 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #611reached in 1900
- Change vs 1965
- −37.5%5 in 1969, from 8
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.
Birtha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bertha in German — same name
- Berthe in French — same name
- Berta in Italian — same name
Birthas among us
people named Birtha 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
Birtha 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
- The meaning is bright and positive and easy to explain.
- It reaches back to a genuinely ancient Germanic element.
- The spelling is short and gives no trouble once seen.
- It sits one letter from an ordinary English noun and will be read that way.
- Bertha is the standard spelling and this gets corrected constantly.
- The generation that used it is now very old.
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What they receive
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Birtha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Birthas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Birtha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Birtha in 2025?
- Birtha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Birtha with classmates?
- Birtha 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 Birtha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Birtha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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