Burnett
Masculine · “brown”
Burnett is given to both — 1,561 boys and 282 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Burnett is a Scottish surname with a hunting horn attached to it. The family that carries it in Aberdeenshire has held the same lands since the fourteenth century, on the strength of a grant from Robert the Bruce, and the physical object that went with the grant, an ivory horn, is still in the family's possession. It is also the name of the woman who put a generation of American boys into velvet suits.
How old is the name Burnett?
Burnett first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Burnett alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 500 people named Burnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burnett most popular?
Burnett peaked in 1887, reaching #631 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Norman nickname about coloring to Burnett
The story of Burnett
The novelist was born in Manchester, emigrated to Tennessee after her father's death, started selling stories to magazines as a teenager to keep the family fed, and became one of the highest-earning writers of her generation. The book that made her name was about a small American boy who turns out to be heir to an English earldom, and the illustrations gave him long curls and a black velvet suit with a lace collar. American mothers copied it in enormous numbers, to the lasting resentment of a generation of sons. She wrote a great deal else, including two books about children and gardens and grief that have never been out of print, and she is now remembered for those and not for the velvet, which is probably the outcome she would have chosen.
Meaning
brown
The surname descends from a Norman nickname about coloring, with a French diminutive ending, and the derivation is not in dispute. As with all nickname surnames, the description applied to one ancestor and then descended to people it did not fit, which is why the meaning of a surname tells you almost nothing about anyone now carrying it.
How the name formed
- A Norman nickname about coloring
- A Scottish surname with lands in Aberdeenshire
- Used as a first name in nineteenth-century America
- Rare on both sides of the register since
Pronouncing Burnett
bur-NET
Two syllables with the stress at the back, following the French diminutive ending. Some American families put it on the front instead, giving BUR-net, and both are heard; the back stress is the older and more Scottish one.
Nicknames for Burnett
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 192043 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #631reached in 1887
- Change vs 1986
- −37.5%5 in 1994, 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.
Burnetts among us
people named Burnett 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
Burnett 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
- It is a genuine surname with a documented history and a family still holding the lands.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The back stress gives it a shape that most surname names lack.
- It reads unambiguously as a surname, and some people will assume it is one.
- The stress is unsettled between the front and the back.
- It is very firmly of the nineteenth century and has had no revival.
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What they receive
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Burnett
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Burnetts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Burnett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burnett in 2025?
- Burnett is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Burnett with classmates?
- Burnett 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 Burnett? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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