Bernadette
A feminine name of Old German origin meaning "brave as a bear".
Name Census estimates that about 34,636 living Americans carry the first name Bernadette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bernadette today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bernadette births was 1958 (1,494 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bernadette. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Bernadette with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bernadette is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 60 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
35K
~ 1 in 9,896 Americans
Peak year
1958
1,494 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1983 SSA rank
#1,247
Tracked since 1880
Census
Bernadette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 44,259 people with the first name Bernadette, which placed it at #976 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
#976
National first-name rank
People counted
44K
44,259 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bernadette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernadette is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Bernadette 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 Bernadette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 26,138
- Black or African American17.3% · 7,635
- Hispanic or Latino12.0% · 5,320
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.2% · 3,619
- Two or more races2.3% · 1,028
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 519
Gender
Gender distribution for Bernadette
Out of the 54,788 babies given the name Bernadette since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Bernadette as a male name
- Ranked #6,340 in 1983
- 5 male births in 1983
- Peak: 1967 (8 births)
Bernadette as a female name
- Ranked #1,247 in 2024
- 186 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (1,494 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bernadette appears almost entirely female. Of the 44,253 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Bernadette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bernadette from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 10,753 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bernadette 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 Bernadette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bernadettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Bernadette, while Wyoming, Utah, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 978 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bernadette
The given name Bernadette has its origins in the Frankish or Germanic languages of medieval Europe. It is derived from the Germanic words "bern" meaning bear, and "hard" meaning brave or hardy. Thus, the name literally translates to "brave as a bear".
In its earliest form, the name was spelled "Bernardette" or "Bernhardine" in various regions of what is now France and Germany. It gained popularity as a feminine form of the masculine name Bernard, which followed a similar etymology.
The name is associated with St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), a young French Catholic who reported visions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France. Her visions led to the establishment of the Marian shrine at Lourdes, one of the most renowned pilgrimage sites in the world. Bernadette was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1933.
Other notable figures with the name Bernadette include Bernadette Devlin (born 1947), an Irish political activist and politician who played a prominent role in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. Bernadette Peters (born 1948) is an American actress and singer, renowned for her work on Broadway and in films.
Bernadette Soubirous Bigombe (born 1956) is a Ugandan peace activist and former government minister, who played a key role in negotiations with the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group. Bernadette Chirac (born 1933) is the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac, and was actively involved in charitable work during her husband's presidency.
Bernadette Fox Murphy (1952-2010) was an American Roman Catholic religious sister and anti-death penalty activist, known for her work in advocating for the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Bernadette
People
Bernadette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bernadette 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
Bernadette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bernadette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34,636 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bernadette 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 9,896 US residents.
Is Bernadette a common name?
We classify Bernadette as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 54,788 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bernadette most popular?
The single biggest year for Bernadette was 1958, when 1,494 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bernadette is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bernadette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 44,259 people with the name Bernadette, or 14.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #976 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 Bernadette 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 Bernadette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bernadette appears almost entirely female. Of the 44,253 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Bernadette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernadette is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Bernadette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bernadette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (26,138 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 Bernadette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bernadette a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Bernadette 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 Bernadette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bernadette 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 Bernadette 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 share the name Bernadette?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.