Berton
A masculine name of Old French origin meaning "bright town".
Name Census estimates that about 664 living Americans carry the first name Berton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Berton today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berton births was 1924 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berton. 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 Berton is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Bertons were born before 1969.
People living today
664
~ 1 in 516,196 Americans
Peak year
1924
53 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2009 SSA rank
#12,713
Tracked since 1880
Census
Berton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 729 people with the first name Berton, which placed it at #15,699 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
#15,699
National first-name rank
People counted
729
729 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Berton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berton is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Berton 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 Berton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.5% · 609
- Black or African American6.9% · 50
- Two or more races3.0% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 11
Popularity
Berton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berton from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 418 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berton 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 Berton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bertons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Berton, while Ohio, Michigan, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Berton
The name Berton is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "beor" meaning "bear" and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement". It was originally a surname that referred to a place where bears were kept or a bear-inhabited area.
In the Middle Ages, Berton emerged as a given name, likely influenced by the widespread practice of adopting surnames as first names during that period. The earliest recorded use of Berton as a first name dates back to the 13th century in England.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Berton was Berton de Revel, a 13th-century English knight and landowner mentioned in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, a survey of landowners during the reign of King Edward I.
In the 14th century, Berton appeared in the records of the Chancery Court of London, where a man named Berton atte Wode was mentioned in a legal case in 1371.
During the Renaissance period, the name Berton gained prominence with the English author and poet Berton Braley (1882-1966), known for his humorous and satirical works. He was a prolific writer and contributed to numerous publications, including Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and Harper's Magazine.
Another notable figure with the name Berton was Berton Roueché (1910-1994), an American writer and journalist who worked for The New Yorker magazine. He is best known for his non-fiction works, particularly those exploring medical mysteries and scientific puzzles.
In the field of politics, Berton Kasemann (1928-2018) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1966 to 1977.
The name Berton also has ties to the world of sports. Berton Churchill (1876-1940) was an American rower who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, winning a gold medal in the coxed fours event.
While not as common as some other names, Berton has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including authors, journalists, politicians, and athletes, spanning several centuries.
People
Berton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berton 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
Berton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 664 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berton 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 516,196 US residents.
Is Berton a common name?
We classify Berton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,874 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berton most popular?
The single biggest year for Berton was 1924, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berton is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Berton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 729 people with the name Berton, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,699 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 Berton 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 Berton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Berton appears almost entirely male. Of the 736 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Berton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berton is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Berton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Berton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.5% (609 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 Berton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Berton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Berton 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 Berton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Berton 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 Berton 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 have the name Berton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.