Bee
Bee was last recorded in 2025, when 8 babies were given it; 1,700 Americans have been recorded with it between 1881 and 2025 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bee by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bee mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bee is “a diminutive of the female given name Beatrice.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bee?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,198, in 2000; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
48 babies in 1990, the peak
Bee peaked in 1990, when 48 babies were given it (38 boys, #1,969 among boys’ names). The 8 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,091 | under 5 | |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,270 | under 5 | |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,440 | under 5 | |
| 2022 | 13 | #8,107 | under 5 | |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,282 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,249 | under 5 | |
| 2018 | 8 | #11,570 | under 5 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 6 | #9,198 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 5 | #10,059 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 7 | #7,632 |
Every recorded year (97)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | under 5 | 17 | #3,891 | |
| 1996 | 8 | #9,677 | 18 | #3,683 |
| 1995 | 9 | #8,852 | 26 | #2,765 |
| 1994 | 7 | #10,692 | 23 | #3,030 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,119 | 35 | #2,210 |
| 1992 | 8 | #9,576 | 28 | #2,535 |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,380 | 41 | #1,891 |
| 1990 | 10 | #7,932 | 38 | #1,969 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,108 | 28 | #2,356 |
| 1988 | 6 | #10,496 | 20 | #2,767 |
| 1987 | under 5 | 20 | #2,639 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 26 | #2,164 | |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,420 | 23 | #2,301 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,243 | 25 | #2,102 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,260 | 22 | #2,279 |
| 1982 | under 5 | 31 | #1,818 | |
| 1981 | 9 | #6,847 | 37 | #1,603 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,538 | 34 | #1,696 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 13 | #3,187 | |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,887 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,423 | under 5 | |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,018 | under 5 | |
| 1955 | 5 | #5,890 | under 5 | |
| 1954 | under 5 | 6 | #3,481 | |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,615 | under 5 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 6 | #3,348 | |
| 1947 | 6 | #4,793 | under 5 | |
| 1946 | under 5 | 5 | #3,567 | |
| 1942 | 5 | #4,680 | under 5 | |
| 1941 | 8 | #3,270 | under 5 | |
| 1939 | under 5 | 5 | #3,522 | |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,395 | under 5 | |
| 1935 | under 5 | 7 | #2,983 | |
| 1934 | 10 | #2,757 | under 5 | |
| 1933 | 9 | #2,889 | under 5 | |
| 1932 | 6 | #3,943 | 5 | #3,821 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,391 | under 5 | |
| 1930 | under 5 | 8 | #3,043 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 6 | #3,587 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 5 | #4,203 | |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,305 | 7 | #3,481 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,890 | 13 | #2,313 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,958 | 9 | #2,948 |
| 1924 | 12 | #2,828 | 13 | #2,359 |
| 1923 | 9 | #3,390 | 14 | #2,235 |
| 1922 | 12 | #2,788 | 5 | #4,359 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,188 | 13 | #2,387 |
| 1920 | 14 | #2,478 | 16 | #2,057 |
| 1919 | 19 | #1,926 | 18 | #1,815 |
| 1918 | 21 | #1,810 | 20 | #1,718 |
| 1917 | 27 | #1,435 | 19 | #1,698 |
| 1916 | 23 | #1,589 | 18 | #1,701 |
| 1915 | 21 | #1,626 | 14 | #1,980 |
| 1914 | 16 | #1,669 | 9 | #2,284 |
| 1913 | 12 | #1,778 | 15 | #1,374 |
| 1912 | 17 | #1,305 | 10 | #1,627 |
| 1911 | 13 | #1,310 | 12 | #984 |
| 1910 | 12 | #1,344 | 8 | #1,205 |
| 1909 | 8 | #1,622 | 5 | #1,469 |
| 1908 | 13 | #1,141 | 12 | #784 |
| 1907 | 10 | #1,308 | 13 | #740 |
| 1906 | 8 | #1,428 | 7 | #1,013 |
| 1905 | 7 | #1,553 | 6 | #1,104 |
| 1904 | 9 | #1,267 | 13 | #647 |
| 1903 | 9 | #1,214 | 8 | #851 |
| 1902 | 12 | #1,029 | under 5 | |
| 1901 | 10 | #1,076 | 8 | #783 |
| 1900 | 13 | #1,055 | 10 | #842 |
| 1899 | 6 | #1,413 | under 5 | |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,732 | 9 | #745 |
| 1897 | 6 | #1,401 | 8 | #792 |
| 1896 | 9 | #1,134 | 9 | #781 |
| 1895 | 7 | #1,313 | 7 | #881 |
| 1894 | under 5 | 8 | #792 | |
| 1893 | under 5 | 7 | #843 | |
| 1892 | under 5 | 6 | #965 | |
| 1891 | under 5 | 11 | #566 | |
| 1890 | 7 | #1,111 | 8 | #746 |
| 1889 | under 5 | 11 | #587 | |
| 1888 | 10 | #842 | 10 | #655 |
| 1887 | under 5 | 5 | #940 | |
| 1886 | 5 | #1,123 | under 5 | |
| 1885 | under 5 | 5 | #948 | |
| 1884 | under 5 | 5 | #981 | |
| 1883 | 6 | #829 | 7 | #728 |
| 1882 | under 5 | 6 | #851 | |
| 1881 | under 5 | 10 | #565 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Bee a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,700 Americans recorded as Bee, 40% are girls and 60% boys. In 2025 it went to 8 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bee: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bee, and how old are they?
An estimated 717 Americans named Bee and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (42% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 32 and 43. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 3,384 people named Bee (1,660 women and girls, 1,724 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 701 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.8 times 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.
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 Bee born?
The states with the most babies named Bee are California, Wisconsin and Minnesota, with 99% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Wisconsin and Minnesota are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 240 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Wisconsin | 73 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| Minnesota | 48 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Kentucky | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Bee is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bee is most over-represented in California: since 1910 it was given 2.1 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 Bee 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 68,303 babies since 1880, Bee is the second most given (2.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 5,232 babies (<1%), again the second 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 Bee
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 Bee and names like it
- Compare Bee and BeauBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sBee peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bee since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Bee.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Bee alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.