Bertine
A feminine form of the French name Bertrand, meaning "bright raven".
Name Census estimates that about 4 living Americans carry the first name Bertine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bertine today is around 102 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bertine births was 1915 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bertine. 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 Bertine is about 102 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Bertines were born before 1934.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Bertine. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
4
~ 1 in 85,688,585 Americans
Peak year
1915
10 babies that year
Average age
102
years old
1936 SSA rank
#4,258
Tracked since 1912
Census
Bertine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 137 people with the first name Bertine, which placed it at #47,543 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
#47,543
National first-name rank
People counted
137
137 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
57.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bertine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertine is Black at 57.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.1%). 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 Bertine 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 Bertine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American57.7% · 79
- White29.9% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 7
- Two or more races3.6% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1
Popularity
Bertine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bertine from the 1910s through to the 1930s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 44 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Bertine remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bertine 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 Bertine 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 Bertine
The name Bertine has its origins in the Germanic language, tracing back to the 5th century AD. It is a feminine form of the male name Bertram or Bertrand, which comes from the Germanic words "berhta" meaning "bright" and "hraban" meaning "raven." The name essentially translates to "bright raven."
In the early Middle Ages, the name Bertine was particularly popular in regions of present-day France and Germany, where Germanic tribes had settled. It was commonly used among the Frankish nobility and upper classes during the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bertine appears in the 9th century, when a Carolingian noblewoman named Bertine of Laon lived during the reign of Charlemagne. She was known for her piety and charitable works, and a church was later dedicated in her honor.
In the 11th century, Bertine de Vergy was a notable French noblewoman and heiress who played a significant role in the history of the House of Vergy, a prominent medieval noble family in Burgundy.
During the 12th century, Bertine de Rothenburg was a German abbess and religious leader who served as the head of the Benedictine convent in Rothenburg, Bavaria.
In the 14th century, Bertine of Aragon was a princess of the Crown of Aragon and the daughter of King James II of Aragon. She married Philip, Prince of Taranto, and their marriage helped solidify political alliances between the Kingdoms of Aragon and Naples.
In the late 15th century, Bertine de Polignac was a French noblewoman and the wife of Jacques de Polignac, a prominent military commander during the Italian Wars. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her influence in the court of King Francis I of France.
While the name Bertine has seen a decline in popularity in recent centuries, it remains a significant part of historical records, reflecting the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Germanic peoples and their influence across Europe during the Middle Ages.
People
Bertine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bertine 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
Bertine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bertine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bertine 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 85,688,585 US residents.
Is Bertine a common name?
We classify Bertine as "Very Rare". It ranks above 6.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 110 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bertine most popular?
The single biggest year for Bertine was 1915, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bertine is about 102 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bertine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 137 people with the name Bertine, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,543 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 Bertine 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 Bertine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bertine leans strongly female. 111 people counted with this name were female (89.5%), compared with 13 male bearers (10.5%). 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 Bertine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertine is Black at 57.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.1%). 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 Bertine most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Bertine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.7% (79 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 Bertine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bertine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bertine 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 Bertine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bertine 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 Bertine 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 Americans are named Bertine?
Want to know how many people have the name Bertine? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.