Bessy
Bessy was given to 5 girls in 2025, #15,304 among girls’ names; 334 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bessy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bessy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bessy is “a diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth; today more often spelled Bessie.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bessy?
#15,304 among girls’ names, 2025
Bessy fell from #11,027 in 2015 to #15,304 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 5.0 to 3.1 per million.
13 babies in 2001, the peak
Bessy peaked in 2001, when 13 girls were given it, #7,790 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #15,304 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 6 | #13,741 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 7 | #12,443 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,423 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 10 | #9,659 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 5 | #15,913 | 3.0 |
| 2018 | 8 | #11,577 | 4.7 |
| 2017 | 9 | #10,826 | 5.2 |
| 2015 | 9 | #11,027 | 5.0 |
| 2014 | 9 | #11,121 | 5.0 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 6 | #14,902 | 3.4 |
| 2012 | 6 | #15,260 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 6 | #15,259 | 3.4 |
| 2009 | 6 | #15,534 | 3.3 |
| 2008 | 8 | #12,759 | 4.2 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,230 | 5.7 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,378 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 9 | #11,050 | 4.9 |
| 2004 | 11 | #9,346 | 6.0 |
| 2003 | 9 | #10,543 | 4.9 |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,278 | 4.5 |
| 2001 | 13 | #7,790 | 7.2 |
| 2000 | 6 | #13,382 | 3.3 |
| 1999 | 5 | #14,697 | 2.8 |
| 1996 | 6 | #12,017 | 3.4 |
| 1995 | 5 | #13,678 | 2.8 |
| 1994 | 11 | #7,662 | 6.2 |
| 1993 | 6 | #11,941 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 6 | #11,912 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,386 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 6 | #11,555 | 3.2 |
| 1989 | 5 | #12,588 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 9 | #7,752 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 10 | #6,836 | 5.8 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,130 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,204 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,359 | 3.1 |
| 1975 | 6 | #8,077 | 4.1 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,514 | 4.1 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,426 | 4.4 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,357 | 5.0 |
| 1924 | 5 | #5,158 | 4.0 |
| 1923 | 10 | #3,150 | 8.3 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,900 | 4.3 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,676 | 4.6 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,686 | 6.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Bessy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bessy has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Bessy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bessy, and how old are they?
An estimated 291 Americans named Bessy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (87% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 12 and 33. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,099 people named Bessy (2,088 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 260 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8.1 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 171,987 babies since 1880, Bessy is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 21 babies (24%), the second most given that year.
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 Bessy
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 Bessy and names like it
- Compare Bessy and BessieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sBessy peaked in 2001.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bessy since 1910.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Bessy.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Bessy alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.