Burnis
Masculine
Burnis is given to both — 842 boys and 90 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Burnis is shaped like a surname and cannot be traced to one, which is the ordinary condition of a great many American men's names of its period.
How old is the name Burnis?
Burnis first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Burnis alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 300 people named Burnis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Burnis most popular?
Burnis peaked in 1925, reaching #1360 nationally. See the whole 1925 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Burnis
The surname it most resembles belongs to a man who reshaped a national literature by pretending to collect it. Robert Burns gathered Scottish songs, and where a song was fragmentary he finished it, where it was coarse he cleaned it, and where he could not find one he wrote it and put it in the collection unsigned. A great many pieces that Scotland now regards as ancient traditional songs — including the one the English-speaking world sings at midnight every new year — are substantially his. He did not claim them. The result is a body of national heritage whose authorship is genuinely undecidable, and he intended exactly that.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is recorded. It may be built on the surname Burns, on the northern word for a stream, or on nothing at all — the decades it appears in produced men's names of this shape in quantity and kept no notes about any of them.
Pronouncing Burnis
BUR-niss
Two syllables, stress at the front, ending in a soft s.
Nicknames for Burnis
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 192529 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1360reached in 1925
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%5 in 1986, 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.
Burniss among us
people named Burnis 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
Burnis 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 has the settled sound of a family name rather than an invention.
- It is short and read correctly on sight.
- It is carried by almost nobody alive.
- It will be heard as Bernice, which is a woman's name, on the telephone.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- There is no meaning to hand him.
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Burnis
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Burniss 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 Burnis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Burnis in 2025?
- Burnis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Burnis with classmates?
- Burnis 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 Burnis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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