Bertel
A Germanic masculine name derived from "Bright" and "Ruler" or "Noble One".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Bertel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bertel today is around 87 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bertel births was 1916 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bertel. 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
- • The typical person named Bertel is about 87 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Bertels were born before 1949.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Bertel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
1916
12 babies that year
Average age
87
years old
1944 SSA rank
#3,476
Tracked since 1913
Census
Bertel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 112 people with the first name Bertel, which placed it at #51,666 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
#51,666
National first-name rank
People counted
112
112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bertel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertel is Black at 46.4%. The next largest groups are White (42.9%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Bertel 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 Bertel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.4% · 52
- White42.9% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 2
- Two or more races1.8% · 2
Popularity
Bertel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bertel from the 1910s through to the 1940s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 54 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bertel 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 Bertel 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 Bertel
The given name Bertel has its origins in the Germanic languages. It is a diminutive form of the name Berthold, which is composed of the elements "beraht" meaning "bright" and "waldan" meaning "to rule". The name likely emerged during the Middle Ages in areas populated by Germanic tribes such as modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of Scandinavia.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bertel can be found in the Annales Bertiniani, a set of Frankish annals from the 9th century. These annals mention a man named Bertel who served as a chamberlain to the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Bertel de Henaut was a Flemish crusader who participated in the Sixth Crusade to the Holy Land. He is mentioned in various chronicles from that time period.
During the Renaissance, a German astronomer and mathematician named Bertel Brudzewski, born around 1490, made significant contributions to the understanding of planetary motion and the heliocentric model of the solar system.
In the 17th century, a Danish naval officer and explorer named Bertel Jensen Anker led several expeditions to Greenland and contributed to the mapping of the island's coastline.
In more recent times, a Finnish writer and poet named Bertel Gripenberg, who lived from 1878 to 1947, was known for his works in the Swedish language and his contributions to Finnish literature.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Bertel. While the name has its roots in the Germanic languages, it has been used across various cultures and regions over the centuries.
People
Bertel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bertel 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
Bertel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bertel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bertel 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Bertel a common name?
We classify Bertel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 115 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bertel most popular?
The single biggest year for Bertel was 1916, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bertel is about 87 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bertel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 112 people with the name Bertel, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,666 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 Bertel 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 Bertel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bertel leans strongly male. 97 people counted with this name were male (86.6%), compared with 15 female bearers (13.4%). 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 Bertel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertel is Black at 46.4%. The next largest groups are White (42.9%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Bertel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Bertel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.4% (52 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 Bertel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bertel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bertel 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.
Is Bertel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bertel 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 Bertel 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 common is the name Bertel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.