Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Bessie” in the USA?

Number of people named “Bessie” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Bessie” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Bessie” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Bessie” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Bessie” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Bessie” by birth year

This chart shows how “Bessie” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 796 0.003950686 796 100%
1881 911 0.00472785 903 8 98%
1882 1153 0.005204642 1144 9 98%
1883 1241 0.005720317 1241 100%
1884 1456 0.005980424 1451 5 99%
1885 1595 0.006622269 1588 7 99%
1886 1796 0.00703442 1791 5 99%
1887 1843 0.007449715 1838 5 99%
1888 2290 0.00764674 2278 12 99%
1889 2350 0.008133007 2343 7 99%
1890 2370 0.007863279 2370 100%
1891 2331 0.008131215 2323 8 99%
1892 2553 0.007635163 2541 12 99%
1893 2360 0.00725656 2352 8 99%
1894 2535 0.007484721 2520 15 99%
1895 2549 0.007261694 2542 7 99%
1896 2447 0.006845062 2435 12 99%
1897 2413 0.006954752 2407 6 100%
1898 2653 0.006954949 2647 6 100%
1899 2280 0.006721024 2280 100%
1900 3055 0.006784999 3044 11 99%
1901 2194 0.006344488 2183 11 99%
1902 2455 0.006348049 2448 7 99%
1903 2354 0.006175236 2339 15 99%
1904 2345 0.005811864 2340 5 100%
1905 2455 0.00579116 2446 9 99%
1906 2403 0.005608576 2396 7 99%
1907 2322 0.004989364 2311 11 99%
1908 2206 0.004514488 2201 5 100%
1909 2288 0.004475533 2276 12 99%
1910 2404 0.004069672 2392 12 99%
1911 2288 0.003551262 2279 9 99%
1912 2848 0.00288241 2832 16 99%
1913 2966 0.002608367 2952 14 99%
1914 3272 0.002310173 3260 12 99%
1915 3903 0.002129963 3888 15 99%
1916 4132 0.002136044 4122 10 100%
1917 3943 0.001964869 3927 16 99%
1918 4117 0.001896264 4101 16 99%
1919 4118 0.001951432 4106 12 99%
1920 3920 0.001732487 3906 14 99%
1921 3690 0.001580635 3678 12 99%
1922 3472 0.001516716 3447 25 99%
1923 3401 0.001477102 3387 14 99%
1924 3425 0.001438103 3404 21 99%
1925 3280 0.001405733 3266 14 99%
1926 3080 0.001341519 3054 26 98%
1927 2991 0.001289581 2975 16 99%
1928 2688 0.001188887 2661 27 98%
1929 2400 0.00109481 2380 20 98%
1930 2405 0.001081731 2382 23 98%
1931 2133 0.001013596 2116 17 98%
1932 2104 0.000996547 2094 10 99%
1933 1898 0.000949262 1881 17 98%
1934 1843 0.000887416 1831 12 99%
1935 1776 0.000849801 1756 20 98%
1936 1657 0.000797563 1645 12 99%
1937 1559 0.000731695 1550 9 99%
1938 1435 0.000648566 1419 16 98%
1939 1372 0.000622662 1361 11 98%
1940 1303 0.000565861 1297 6 99%
1941 1186 0.000486779 1176 10 98%
1942 1272 0.000465624 1266 6 99%
1943 1148 0.000406723 1148 100%
1944 1122 0.000417088 1122 100%
1945 1075 0.000405215 1075 100%
1946 1027 0.000321409 1022 5 99%
1947 1012 0.00028093 1012 100%
1948 1003 0.000290513 998 5 99%
1949 953 0.000273475 946 7 99%
1950 794 0.00022664 794 100%
1951 762 0.000206855 762 100%
1952 729 0.000191943 729 100%
1953 650 0.000168672 650 100%
1954 652 0.00016379 652 100%
1955 533 0.00013275 533 100%
1956 523 0.000126848 518 5 98%
1957 465 0.000110658 465 100%
1958 443 0.000107163 443 100%
1959 396 0.000095238 396 100%
1960 385 0.000092686 385 100%
1961 318 0.000076769 318 100%
1962 330 0.000081777 330 100%
1963 293 0.000074024 293 100%
1964 290 0.000074596 290 100%
1965 273 0.000075301 273 100%
1966 202 0.000058119 202 100%
1967 186 0.000054788 186 100%
1968 159 0.000047064 159 100%
1969 156 0.000044888 156 100%
1970 160 0.000044364 160 100%
1971 140 0.000040788 140 100%
1972 149 0.000047407 149 100%
1973 120 0.000039776 120 100%
1974 116 0.000038158 116 100%
1975 131 0.000043386 131 100%
1976 106 0.000034934 106 100%
1977 92 0.000028963 92 100%
1978 91 0.000028672 91 100%
1979 101 0.000030358 101 100%
1980 99 0.000028741 99 100%
1981 103 0.000029774 103 100%
1982 89 0.000025371 89 100%
1983 67 0.000019345 67 100%
1984 68 0.000019491 68 100%
1985 85 0.000023815 85 100%
1986 66 0.000018555 66 100%
1987 59 0.000016363 59 100%
1988 53 0.000014344 53 100%
1989 60 0.000015607 60 100%
1990 73 0.000018469 73 100%
1991 65 0.000016687 65 100%
1992 51 0.000013277 51 100%
1993 24 0.000006366 24 100%
1994 37 0.000009953 37 100%
1995 26 0.0000071 26 100%
1996 30 0.000008225 30 100%
1997 32 0.000008826 32 100%
1998 27 0.000007341 27 100%
1999 21 0.000005685 21 100%
2000 31 0.000008201 31 100%
2001 26 0.000006946 26 100%
2002 28 0.00000749 28 100%
2003 15 0.000003945 15 100%
2004 7 0.000001832 7 100%
2005 15 0.000003901 15 100%
2006 19 0.000004803 19 100%
2007 15 0.000003752 15 100%
2008 15 0.000003816 15 100%
2009 9 0.000002356 9 100%
2010 8 0.000002165 8 100%
2011 9 0.000002461 9 100%
2012 13 0.000003554 13 100%
2013 17 0.000004663 17 100%
2014 11 0.000002968 11 100%
2015 11 0.000002972 11 100%
2016 8 0.000002181 8 100%
2017 12 0.000003356 12 100%
2018 9 0.00000256 9 100%
2019 11 0.000003169 11 100%
2020 16 0.00000479 16 100%
2021 17 0.000005018 17 100%
2022 13 0.000003843 13 100%
2023 15 0.00000453 15 100%
2024 10 0.000003004 10 100%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Bessie:

  1. Besma
  2. Besnik
  3. Bess
  4. Bessan
  5. Besse
  6. Bessie (this page)
  7. Bessiemae
  8. Bessy
  9. Bessye
  10. Besty
  11. Beta