Bertrum
Bright raven or glorious raven, a German masculine name.
Name Census estimates that about 91 living Americans carry the first name Bertrum. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bertrum today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bertrum births was 1916 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bertrum. 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 Bertrum is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Bertrums were born before 1970.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Bertrum. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
91
~ 1 in 3,766,531 Americans
Peak year
1916
12 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1993 SSA rank
#8,836
Tracked since 1915
Census
Bertrum in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 165 people with the first name Bertrum, which placed it at #43,061 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
#43,061
National first-name rank
People counted
165
165 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bertrum
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertrum is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Black (43.0%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Bertrum 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 Bertrum at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.1% · 76
- Black or African American43.0% · 71
- Two or more races4.2% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.0% · 5
Popularity
Bertrum: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bertrum from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 54 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
Bertrum 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 Bertrum 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 Bertrum
The name Bertrum has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically Old Frankish and Old English. It is derived from the elements "berht" meaning "bright" and "ram" meaning "raven." The name was popular among the Franks and Anglo-Saxons during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bertrum comes from the Frankish Chronicles, which mention a nobleman named Bertrum who lived in the 6th century AD. The name also appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, where a Bertrum is mentioned as a Saxon warrior who fought against the Danes in the 9th century.
In the early medieval period, the name Bertrum was associated with bravery and strength, perhaps due to its connection with the raven, a symbol of war in Germanic mythology. Several historical figures bore this name, including Bertrum of Metz, a Frankish abbot who lived in the 7th century, and Bertrum the Venerable, a Benedictine monk and scholar from the 11th century.
During the High Middle Ages, the name Bertrum gained popularity among the nobility and clergy. One notable bearer of the name was Bertrum of Le Mans, a French nobleman who participated in the First Crusade in the late 11th century. Another was Bertrum of Reichenau, a German monk and chronicler who lived in the 12th century.
In the later medieval period, the name continued to be used, though with varying spellings such as Bertram, Bertrand, and Berthold. A famous bearer of the name during this time was Bertrand du Guesclin, a French military leader and one of the most renowned knights of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).
While the name Bertrum fell out of widespread use after the Middle Ages, it has been revived in modern times as a unique and historical name choice. However, its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period, when it was borne by both warriors and scholars in the Germanic and Frankish realms.
People
Bertrum + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bertrum 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
Bertrum: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bertrum?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 91 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bertrum 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 3,766,531 US residents.
Is Bertrum a common name?
We classify Bertrum as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 246 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bertrum most popular?
The single biggest year for Bertrum was 1916, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bertrum is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bertrum in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 165 people with the name Bertrum, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,061 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 Bertrum 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 Bertrum?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bertrum leans strongly male. 166 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Bertrum?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bertrum is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Black (43.0%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Bertrum most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bertrum in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.1% (76 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 Bertrum in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bertrum a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bertrum 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 Bertrum still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bertrum 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 Bertrum 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 Bertrum?
See how many Americans are named Bertrum on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.