Berkley
From an English place name meaning "birch-clearing" or "meadow of birch trees".
Name Census estimates that about 6,586 living Americans carry the first name Berkley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Berkley today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berkley births was 2021 (389 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berkley. 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
- • Berkley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Berkley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
6.6K
~ 1 in 52,043 Americans
Peak year
2021
389 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#879
Tracked since 1891
Census
Berkley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,639 people with the first name Berkley, which placed it at #4,137 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
#4,137
National first-name rank
People counted
4.6K
4,639 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Berkley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berkley is White at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Berkley 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 Berkley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.7% · 4,021
- Black or African American5.2% · 239
- Two or more races3.9% · 180
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 151
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Berkley
Berkley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 7,377 total registrations, 2,169 (29.4%) were male and 5,208 (70.6%) were female.
Berkley as a male name
- Ranked #3,327 in 2024
- 35 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (50 births)
Berkley as a female name
- Ranked #879 in 2024
- 306 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (354 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Berkley on both sides of the split. Of the 4,635 people counted with this name, 1,244 were male (26.8%) and 3,391 were female (73.2%).
Popularity
Berkley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berkley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,748 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Berkley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berkley 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 Berkley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Berkleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, Virginia, Utah recorded the most babies named Berkley, while Maryland, Oregon, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 116 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Berkley
The name Berkley has its origins in Old English, derived from the words "beorg" meaning hill or mound, and "leah" meaning meadow or clearing. It is believed to have originated as a place name, referring to a settlement or village located on a hill or mound surrounded by a meadow or clearing. The earliest known record of the name dates back to the 11th century, when it appeared in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Berkley was Walter de Berkley, a prominent Norman nobleman who lived in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. He was a prominent landowner and held several manors in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Another notable figure was Sir Maurice de Berkley, who lived in the 13th century and served as a knight and military commander during the reign of King Henry III.
In the 14th century, the name gained prominence with Thomas de Berkley, a member of the English nobility who served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Treasurer during the reign of Edward III. He played a significant role in the Hundred Years' War against France and was a trusted advisor to the king.
During the Tudor period, the name was associated with the Berkeley family, a prominent English noble family with roots dating back to the 11th century. One of the most famous members of this family was George Berkeley, an Irish philosopher and bishop born in 1685. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment period and is best known for his philosophical work "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge."
In the 18th century, Berkley was the first name of Berkley Bedell, an American politician and businessman who served as a U.S. Representative from Iowa from 1975 to 1987. He was born in 1921 and was a prominent advocate for rural development and agriculture policies during his time in Congress.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Berkley, which has evolved from its Old English origins to become a recognized given name in its own right, carrying a rich historical legacy.
People
Berkley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berkley 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
Berkley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berkley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,586 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berkley 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 52,043 US residents.
Is Berkley a common name?
We classify Berkley as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,377 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berkley most popular?
The single biggest year for Berkley was 2021, when 389 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berkley is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Berkley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,639 people with the name Berkley, or 1.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,137 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 Berkley 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 Berkley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Berkley on both sides of the split. Of the 4,635 people counted with this name, 1,244 were male (26.8%) and 3,391 were female (73.2%). 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 Berkley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berkley is White at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.2%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Berkley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Berkley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.7% (4,021 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 Berkley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Berkley a female name?
Yes, 70.6% of people registered as Berkley 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 Berkley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Berkley 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 Berkley 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 Berkley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.