Bernedette
A feminine name of French origin meaning "brave as a bear".
Name Census estimates that about 125 living Americans carry the first name Bernedette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bernedette today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bernedette births was 1969 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bernedette. 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.
People living today
125
~ 1 in 2,742,035 Americans
Peak year
1969
9 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1981 SSA rank
#9,234
Tracked since 1917
Census
Bernedette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 220 people with the first name Bernedette, which placed it at #36,203 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
#36,203
National first-name rank
People counted
220
220 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bernedette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernedette is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (16.8%). 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 Bernedette 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 Bernedette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.0% · 121
- Black or African American20.5% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino16.8% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 8
- Two or more races3.6% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Bernedette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bernedette from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 50 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
Bernedette 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 Bernedette 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 Bernedette
The name Bernedette is derived from the Germanic root "bern" meaning bear and the diminutive suffix "-ette", resulting in the meaning "little bear". This name has its origins in medieval France, where it was a variant of the more common name Bernadette.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bernedette can be found in historical records from the 13th century in the region of Normandy, France. It is believed that the name was popularized by the veneration of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a young French peasant girl who witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes in 1858.
In the 14th century, there are records of a Bernedette de Montfort, a noble woman from the French region of Brittany. She is known for her involvement in the Hundred Years' War between England and France, where she played a role in defending her family's lands against English forces.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained some popularity in Italy, where it was spelled as Bernardetta. One notable figure was Bernardetta Campi, an Italian painter from the late 16th century who specialized in portraiture and religious works.
In the 17th century, a French noblewoman named Bernedette de Beauvais is recorded as having been a lady-in-waiting at the court of King Louis XIV. She is believed to have played a role in the cultural and artistic life of the French court during that time.
Another historical figure with this name was Bernedette Soubirous, a Frenchwoman born in 1844 who is now known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1933 for her reported visions of the Virgin Mary and her role in establishing the Marian shrine at Lourdes, which has become a major pilgrimage site.
People
Bernedette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bernedette 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
Bernedette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bernedette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 125 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bernedette 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 2,742,035 US residents.
Is Bernedette a common name?
We classify Bernedette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 173 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bernedette most popular?
The single biggest year for Bernedette was 1969, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bernedette is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bernedette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 220 people with the name Bernedette, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,203 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 Bernedette 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 Bernedette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bernedette appears almost entirely female. Of the 213 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Bernedette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernedette is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (16.8%). 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 Bernedette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bernedette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (121 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 Bernedette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bernedette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bernedette 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 Bernedette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bernedette 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 Bernedette 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 Bernedette?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.