Berk
Berk was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 250 Americans have been recorded with it between 1993 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Berk by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Berk mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Berk is “a male given name from Proto-Turkic, meaning “the hardy/strong one””
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Berk?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,480, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
18 babies in 2010, the peak
Berk peaked in 2010, when 18 boys were given it, #5,068 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | #12,480 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 6 | #10,959 | 3.4 |
| 2020 | 5 | #12,258 | 2.9 |
| 2018 | 6 | #10,949 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 6 | #10,947 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 5 | #12,423 | 2.6 |
| 2015 | 5 | #12,302 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 13 | #6,336 | 6.8 |
| 2013 | 11 | #7,082 | 5.8 |
| 2012 | 15 | #5,739 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 11 | #7,060 | 5.8 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,068 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 8 | #9,078 | 4.0 |
| 2008 | 9 | #8,390 | 4.4 |
| 2007 | 10 | #7,653 | 4.8 |
| 2006 | 11 | #6,961 | 5.4 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,169 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 8 | #8,213 | 4.0 |
| 2003 | 13 | #5,584 | 6.6 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,100 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 9 | #6,982 | 4.6 |
| 2000 | 13 | #5,312 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 9 | #6,584 | 4.7 |
| 1998 | 5 | #9,776 | 2.6 |
| 1997 | 8 | #6,669 | 4.2 |
| 1996 | 9 | #6,033 | 4.8 |
| 1994 | 6 | #7,866 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 7 | #6,886 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Berk a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Berk has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 28 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Berk: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Berk, and how old are they?
An estimated 246 Americans named Berk and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 14 and 25. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 467 people named Berk (4 women and girls, 463 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 233 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.0 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,837 babies since 1880, Berk is the third most given (6.5% of them). In 2025 none of their 50 babies recorded by SSA was a Berk (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Berk
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 Berk and names like it
- Compare Berk and BreckBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sBerk peaked in 2010.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Berk.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Berk alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.