Berry
A sweet fruit, also a color name of reddish-purple.
Name Census estimates that about 3,157 living Americans carry the first name Berry. It is a predominantly male name (93.9% of registrations). The average person named Berry today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berry births was 1963 (108 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berry. 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
3.2K
~ 1 in 108,570 Americans
Peak year
1963
108 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,804
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Berry
Berry leans heavily male at 93.9% of total registrations, but 370 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Berry as a male name
- Ranked #7,804 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1963 (108 births)
Berry as a female name
- Ranked #13,693 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1925 (13 births)
Popularity
Berry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 854 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berry 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 Berry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Berrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Berry, while West Virginia, Louisiana, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Berry
The name Berry is an English given name derived from the Old English word "berige," which means "berry." It has been used as a first name since the Middle Ages and was likely originally bestowed upon children born during the berry-picking season or those with rosy, berry-like cheeks.
Berry can trace its origins back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries. The name was primarily used in rural areas, where berries were an important part of the local diet and economy. It was a common practice at the time to name children after natural elements or occupations related to the land.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Berry appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry mentions a man named Berry who held land in the county of Hertfordshire.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Berry. One of the earliest was Berry de Montmorency (c. 1195-1232), a French nobleman and crusader who participated in the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in the early 13th century. Another early bearer of the name was Berry de Garrive (c. 1280-1355), a French knight and military leader during the Hundred Years' War.
In the 16th century, Berry Pomeroy (c. 1500-1567) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament who played a role in the suppression of the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. A century later, Berry Brabazon (1640-1708) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and politician who served as Lord Lieutenant of County Meath in Ireland.
More recently, Berry Gordy Jr. (born 1929) is an American record executive and entrepreneur who founded the Motown record label, which played a significant role in the development of soul and R&B music in the 1960s. His contributions to the music industry have been widely recognized, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
People
Berry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berry 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
Berry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,157 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berry 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 108,570 US residents.
Is Berry a common name?
We classify Berry as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,103 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berry most popular?
The single biggest year for Berry was 1963, when 108 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berry is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Berry a male name?
Yes, 93.9% of people registered as Berry 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.
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.