Burnice
Feminine · “bringing victory”
Burnice is given to both — 1,593 girls and 1,333 boys since 1880. See Burnice as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Burnice writes the first syllable with a u, and the choice is not random. English merged three separate vowels before r into a single sound, so that her, fir and fur now rhyme perfectly and the spellings are historical accidents. A name met by ear rather than read can be written with any of the three, and this one took the one the standard spelling did not.
How old is the name Burnice?
Burnice first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Burnice alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 300 people named Burnice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burnice most popular?
Burnice peaked in 1907, reaching #840 nationally. See the whole 1907 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Greek compound meaning bringing victory to Burnice
The story of Burnice
The dialect difference is a real and well-documented feature. Macedonian Greek turned the aspirated consonants of standard Greek into voiced ones, so a name that Athenians said with an f-like sound began with a b in Macedonia, and because the Macedonian court under Alexander's successors was the most powerful thing in the eastern Mediterranean for two centuries, the Macedonian form is the one that traveled. It went into Egypt with the Ptolemies, where several queens carried it, and from there into the Greek of the New Testament and into every European language afterwards. Standard Greek kept the other form and it went nowhere. It is a good demonstration that the version of a name that survives is the one attached to power rather than the one that is linguistically senior.
Meaning
bringing victory
The Greek original joins a verb meaning to bring or carry with the noun for victory, and the reading is settled. The form this name descends from is Macedonian rather than Attic Greek: the Macedonian dialect said a b where standard Greek said an f sound, so the same name appears in two shapes, and the Macedonian one is the one that spread through the Hellenistic world and reached us.
How the name formed
- A Greek compound meaning bringing victory
- The Macedonian pronunciation carried through the Hellenistic world
- Berenice and Bernice in Latin and English
- Burnice, written with the vowel of a merged set
Related forms: Berenike · Berenice · Berenice
Pronouncing Burnice
ber-NEECE
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The u in the first syllable and the e in the standard spelling produce exactly the same sound in modern English, because the vowels they once represented have merged completely before r.
Nicknames for Burnice
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 192567 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #840reached in 1907
- Change vs 1962
- −25.0%6 in 1964, 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.
Burnice in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Berenike in Greek — related form
- Berenice in French — related form
- Berenice in Italian — related form
Burnices among us
people named Burnice 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
Burnice 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 sound is familiar and the back stress gives it a definite shape.
- It has a documented Greek meaning and a genuinely interesting route into English.
- It is rare now while being entirely recognizable, which is a narrow and useful position.
- Bernice is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected into it constantly.
- The word burn is visible in the written form, which some readers will notice first.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well as girls, in small numbers.
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What they receive
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Burnice
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Burnices 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 Burnice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burnice in 2025?
- Burnice is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Burnice with classmates?
- Burnice 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 Burnice? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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