Berge
A masculine name of Scandinavian origin meaning "mountain" or "hill".
Name Census estimates that about 2 living Americans carry the first name Berge. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Berge today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berge births was 1924 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berge. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Berge is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Berges were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Berge. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
2
~ 1 in 171,377,169 Americans
Peak year
1924
6 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1935 SSA rank
#3,292
Tracked since 1915
Census
Berge in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 134 people with the first name Berge, which placed it at #48,062 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#48,062
National first-name rank
People counted
134
134 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Berge
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berge is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Berge described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Berge at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 113
- Black or African American9.0% · 12
- Two or more races3.0% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 2
Popularity
Berge: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berge from the 1910s through to the 1930s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Berge remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berge by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Berge during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Berge
The name Berge has its origins in the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia during the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries). It is derived from the Old Norse word "bjarg," meaning "cliff" or "mountain." This name likely originated as a descriptive name, referring to someone who lived near a prominent cliff or mountain.
Berge was a popular name among the Vikings, and it is mentioned in several Old Norse sagas and poems. One notable early reference is in the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems from the 13th century, where the name appears in the poem "Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar."
The earliest recorded instance of the name Berge can be found in the Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript that details the settlement of Iceland by Norse settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries. One of the settlers mentioned is Berge Sokkason, who is said to have arrived in Iceland around 920 AD.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Berge. One of the earliest was Berge Endreson (c. 1240 – c. 1305), a Norwegian chieftain and one of the most powerful men in Norway during the 13th century. Another was Berge Torstenson (1603 – 1651), a Swedish military officer and Field Marshal during the Thirty Years' War.
In more recent times, Berge Ragnar Furre (1927 – 2005) was a Norwegian historian and author, known for his work on the history of the labor movement in Norway. Berge Viking (1932 – 2018) was a Norwegian actor and comedian, best known for his role in the popular Norwegian comedy series "Flåklypa Grand Prix."
Another notable figure with the name Berge was Berge Arabian (1919 – 2012), an American businessman and philanthropist of Lebanese descent, who founded the Arabian Horse Trust and was instrumental in preserving and promoting the Arabian horse breed.
People
Berge + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berge as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Berge: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berge?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berge going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 171,377,169 US residents.
Is Berge a common name?
We classify Berge as "Very Rare". It ranks above 4.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berge most popular?
The single biggest year for Berge was 1924, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berge is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Berge in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 134 people with the name Berge, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,062 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Berge in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Berge?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Berge leans strongly male. 119 people counted with this name were male (87.5%), compared with 17 female bearers (12.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Berge?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berge is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Berge most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Berge in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (113 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Berge in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Berge a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Berge in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Berge still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Berge in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Berge can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Berge?
You can see how many people share the name Berge on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.