Bernard — #1317 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Bernard

The Social Security Administration has registered 199,948 babies named Bernard between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Bernard currently holds the #1317 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1924, when 4,505 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Bernard performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 42,410 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Bernard shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 29,908 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Pennsylvania and Illinois. In total, SSA state-level files list Bernard in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Bernard in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 199,948 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.