Bear
Bear was given to 286 boys in 2025, #853 among boys’ names; 3,356 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,330 Americans named Bear and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bear by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bear mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bear is “a male given name.”
As an English surname, related to bear
As a German surname, spelling variant of Baer and Bahr
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bear?
#853 among boys’ names, 2025
Bear rose from #1,320 in 2015 to #853 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.07 to 0.17 per 1,000.
332 babies in 2022, the peak
Bear peaked in 2022, when 332 boys were given it, #760 among boys’ names. The 286 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 286 | #853 | 0.17 |
| 2024 | 302 | #826 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 299 | #820 | 0.17 |
| 2022 | 332 | #760 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 288 | #827 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 250 | #900 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 244 | #897 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 207 | #998 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 198 | #1,020 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 187 | #1,056 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 134 | #1,320 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 131 | #1,329 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 86 | #1,709 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 79 | #1,848 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 85 | #1,730 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 54 | #2,356 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 55 | #2,349 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 48 | #2,589 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 24 | #4,133 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 8 | #8,810 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,166 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 7 | #8,748 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 6 | #9,512 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 8 | #7,594 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 6 | #9,196 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #8,223 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #8,909 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,368 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #4,847 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bear a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bear has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 29 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Bear: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bear, and how old are they?
3,330 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,356 Americans ever recorded as Bear. The median Bear alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 2,408 people named Bear (171 women and girls, 2,237 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,649 born in the U.S. The Census count is 46% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 9 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 392 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,920 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Bear born?
The states with the most babies named Bear are California, Texas and Washington, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Washington is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #864 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 25 | #954 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 14 | #507 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 14 | #639 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,066 | 0.7× |
| Colorado | 12 | #471 | 1.8× |
| Utah | 12 | #380 | 1.5× |
| Missouri | 11 | #521 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 10 | #625 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 9 | #726 | 0.9× |
Where Bear is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bear is most over-represented in Colorado: since 1975 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Bear with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 3,679 babies since 1880, Bear is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 286 of their 306 babies (93%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Bear
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Bear and names like it
- Compare Bear and BehrBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBear peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bear since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Bear.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bear alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.