Burnette
Feminine
Burnette is given to both — 764 girls and 234 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Burnette is recorded for boys and girls alike and is a surname with a French-looking ending. Underneath it is a plain color word that has produced a hair description, a wildflower and a family name without anybody noticing they are connected.
How old is the name Burnette?
Burnette first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Burnette alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 300 people named Burnette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burnette most popular?
Burnette peaked in 1923, reaching #1520 nationally. See the whole 1923 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Burnette
Old French brun is brown, and its diminutive gave English several things at once. A brunette is a woman with brown hair, and the word kept its French shape. Burnet is a small wildflower with dark red heads, used in salads and in medicine, named for its color and still in seed catalogs. Burnett as a surname is a byname for somebody with brown hair or a brown coat, exactly as Brown, Blake and Dunn are. All three go back to the same short adjective, and English uses them in three separate registers without any of them reminding a speaker of the others.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The surname is generally traced to a word for brown, used as a descriptive byname, and the derivation is reasonably secure. Whether an American Burnette comes from the surname or from a French diminutive is not recorded.
Pronouncing Burnette
bur-NETT
Two syllables with the weight on the second. The final e is silent.
Nicknames for Burnette
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
- 1906
- Most girls named
- 192329 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1520reached in 1923
- Change vs 1969
- +20.0%6 in 1970, 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.
Burnettes among us
people named Burnette 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
Burnette 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
- Nettie is available as a short form and has a long history of its own.
- The stress is unmistakable, so it is rarely mispronounced on a first reading.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, but a real minority are boys; either may be taken for the other.
- Burnett and Bernette are both in the record, so the spelling will be checked back with you.
- No origin is documented for the first name, so the meaning question has nothing settled behind it.
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Burnette
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Burnettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Burnette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burnette in 2025?
- Burnette is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Burnette with classmates?
- Burnette 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 Burnette? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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