Humanverse

Bert vs Beryle

American parents have registered 34,242 Berts since 1880, against 644 Beryles. Bert is still ahead, with 6 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bert against Beryle, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bert Beryle

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Bert has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1905, when Bert had 142 and Beryle had 9.

Side by side

  Bert Beryle
Total US births 34,242644
Most in one year 71537
Babies in 2025 6under 5
Estimated living today 10,000100
Median age today 6581
Peak year 19181921
Best rank 186th boys1,437th girls
Rank in 2025 10,695thunranked
First recorded 18801903
Girls / boys 657 / 33,585550 / 94

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Beryles alive today are over 81; half the Berts are over 65. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Bert and Beryle.