Berklee
A feminine given name derived from the name of the renowned Berklee College of Music.
Name Census estimates that about 1,208 living Americans carry the first name Berklee. It is a predominantly female name (97.8% of registrations). The average person named Berklee today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berklee births was 2018 (132 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berklee. 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
- • Berklee is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 283,737 Americans
Peak year
2018
132 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2019 SSA rank
#3,389
Tracked since 1992
Census
Berklee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 833 people with the first name Berklee, which placed it at #14,206 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
#14,206
National first-name rank
People counted
833
833 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Berklee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berklee is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.8%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Berklee 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 Berklee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.8% · 756
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 40
- Two or more races2.6% · 22
- Black or African American1.4% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Berklee
Berklee leans heavily female at 97.8% of total registrations, but 27 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Berklee as a male name
- Ranked #10,956 in 2019
- 6 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2016 (6 births)
Berklee as a female name
- Ranked #3,389 in 2024
- 46 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (127 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Berklee leans strongly female. 788 people counted with this name were female (93.9%), compared with 51 male bearers (6.1%).
Popularity
Berklee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berklee from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 704 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Berklee remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berklee 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 Berklee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Berklees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Texas, Utah, Georgia recorded the most babies named Berklee, while North Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Berklee
The given name Berklee has its origins in the Old English language, where it was derived from the word "beorg," meaning "hill" or "mound." This name likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, between the 5th and 11th centuries.
The name Berklee was initially popularized in regions of England where Anglo-Saxon settlements were established, particularly in areas like Berkshire, which takes its name from the Old English "Bera-cū" meaning "Bera's hill." The name's connection to natural features like hills or mounds suggests it may have been used to describe someone who lived near or on a hill.
While there are no definitive historical references to the name Berklee in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in English parish records dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. One notable individual with this first name was Berklee Trotwood (1572-1647), an English landowner and member of the gentry from Somersetshire.
In the 18th century, Berklee Shaftesbury (1723-1796) was a prominent English philosopher and writer who made significant contributions to the field of moral philosophy. His works, such as "Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times," influenced the development of the Enlightenment movement.
During the 19th century, Berklee Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist and essayist best known for works like "Treasure Island" and "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." His literary contributions have had a lasting impact on the genres of adventure fiction and Gothic horror.
In the realm of music, Berklee Parker (1920-2005) was an American jazz composer and arranger who worked with notable artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He was a pioneer in the bebop and cool jazz movements and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1986.
Another notable figure was Berklee Hawking (1942-2018), the renowned English theoretical physicist and cosmologist who made groundbreaking discoveries in the study of black holes and the origins of the universe. His best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time," helped popularize complex scientific concepts for a wider audience.
People
Berklee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berklee 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
Berklee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berklee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berklee 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 283,737 US residents.
Is Berklee a common name?
We classify Berklee as "Rare". It ranks above 91.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,218 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berklee most popular?
The single biggest year for Berklee was 2018, when 132 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berklee is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Berklee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 833 people with the name Berklee, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,206 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 Berklee 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 Berklee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Berklee leans strongly female. 788 people counted with this name were female (93.9%), compared with 51 male bearers (6.1%). 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 Berklee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berklee is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.8%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Berklee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Berklee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.8% (756 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 Berklee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Berklee a female name?
Yes, 97.8% of people registered as Berklee in the SSA data are female. 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 Berklee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Berklee 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 Berklee 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 have Berklee as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.