Bethany
Bethany was given to 362 girls in 2025, #752 among girls’ names; 101,086 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 97,400 Americans named Bethany and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 35 years old and half are between 26 and 43.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bethany by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bethany mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bethany is “a female given name from Aramaic, transferred use of the biblical place name.” Its etymology gives the sense “house of wretchedness” (עניא).
From Ancient Greek Βηθανία (Bēthanía), from Aramaic בית עניא (beth anya, “house of wretchedness”). This etymology is highly disputed; see Bethany.
/ˈbɛθəni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bethany?
#752 among girls’ names, 2025
Bethany fell from #415 in 2015 to #752 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.43 to 0.23 per 1,000.
3,307 babies in 1987, the peak
Bethany peaked in 1987, when 3,307 babies were given it (3,294 girls, #87 among girls’ names). The 362 births of 2025 are 11% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 362 | #752 | 0.23 |
| 2024 | 389 | #725 | 0.24 |
| 2023 | 390 | #721 | 0.24 |
| 2022 | 444 | #665 | 0.27 |
| 2021 | 465 | #637 | 0.28 |
| 2020 | 483 | #602 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 550 | #552 | 0.33 |
| 2018 | 658 | #475 | 0.39 |
| 2017 | 629 | #497 | 0.36 |
| 2016 | 692 | #460 | 0.39 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 770 | #415 | 0.43 |
| 2014 | 829 | #393 | 0.46 |
| 2013 | 803 | #386 | 0.46 |
| 2012 | 904 | #352 | 0.51 |
| 2011 | 915 | #350 | 0.52 |
| 2010 | 865 | #368 | 0.49 |
| 2009 | 965 | #341 | 0.53 |
| 2008 | 1,065 | #315 | 0.56 |
| 2007 | 1,168 | #291 | 0.61 |
| 2006 | 1,405 | #243 | 0.74 |
| 2005 | 1,504 | #227 | 0.81 |
| 2004 | 1,629 | #207 | 0.89 |
| 2003 | 1,619 | #204 | 0.89 |
| 2002 | 1,793 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 2001 | 2,030 | #158 | 1.1 |
| 2000 | 2,191 | #151 | 1.2 |
| 1999 | 2,303 | #140 | 1.3 |
| 1998 | 2,490 | #132 | 1.4 |
| 1997 | 2,623 | #121 | 1.5 |
| 1996 | 2,699 | #117 | 1.5 |
| 1995 | 2,743 | #116 | 1.6 |
| 1994 | 2,774 | #116 | 1.6 |
| 1993 | 2,840 | #115 | 1.6 |
| 1992 | 2,930 | #115 | 1.6 |
| 1991 | 3,113 | #109 | 1.7 |
| 1990 | 3,238 | #107 | 1.7 |
| 1989 | 3,081 | #102 | 1.7 |
| 1988 | 3,270 | #89 | 1.8 |
| 1987 | 3,294 | #87 | 1.9 |
| 1986 | 3,082 | #91 | 1.8 |
| 1985 | 2,959 | #94 | 1.7 |
| 1984 | 2,980 | #93 | 1.8 |
| 1983 | 2,765 | #99 | 1.7 |
| 1982 | 2,713 | #112 | 1.6 |
| 1981 | 2,690 | #114 | 1.6 |
| 1980 | 2,497 | #124 | 1.5 |
| 1979 | 2,094 | #135 | 1.3 |
| 1978 | 1,764 | #155 | 1.2 |
| 1977 | 1,532 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 1976 | 1,293 | #192 | 0.88 |
| 1975 | 1,136 | #218 | 0.78 |
| 1974 | 1,181 | #217 | 0.80 |
| 1973 | 1,042 | #243 | 0.71 |
| 1972 | 781 | #309 | 0.51 |
| 1971 | 654 | #363 | 0.39 |
| 1970 | 703 | #356 | 0.40 |
| 1969 | 623 | #372 | 0.37 |
| 1968 | 501 | #422 | 0.31 |
| 1967 | 475 | #430 | 0.29 |
| 1966 | 430 | #453 | 0.25 |
| 1965 | 387 | #483 | 0.22 |
| 1964 | 367 | #511 | 0.19 |
| 1963 | 334 | #531 | 0.17 |
| 1962 | 249 | #640 | 0.13 |
| 1961 | 226 | #697 | 0.11 |
| 1960 | 215 | #694 | 0.11 |
| 1959 | 199 | #708 | 0.10 |
| 1958 | 146 | #844 | 0.07 |
| 1957 | 158 | #804 | 0.08 |
| 1956 | 156 | #791 | 0.08 |
| 1955 | 170 | #726 | 0.09 |
| 1954 | 173 | #705 | 0.09 |
| 1953 | 120 | #848 | 0.06 |
| 1952 | 130 | #790 | 0.07 |
| 1951 | 145 | #724 | 0.08 |
| 1950 | 117 | #803 | 0.07 |
| 1949 | 96 | #902 | 0.06 |
| 1948 | 71 | #1,049 | 0.04 |
| 1947 | 48 | #1,318 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 50 | #1,220 | 0.03 |
| 1945 | 34 | #1,377 | 0.03 |
| 1944 | 34 | #1,382 | 0.03 |
| 1943 | 43 | #1,227 | 0.03 |
| 1942 | 51 | #1,101 | 0.04 |
| 1941 | 22 | #1,701 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 22 | #1,689 | 0.02 |
| 1939 | 29 | #1,380 | 0.03 |
| 1938 | 20 | #1,757 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 14 | #2,206 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,742 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 22 | #1,611 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 21 | #1,655 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 17 | #1,916 | 0.02 |
| 1932 | 12 | #2,509 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 14 | #2,210 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,085 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,452 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,241 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 16 | #2,267 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 9 | #3,289 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 20 | #1,948 | 0.02 |
| 1924 | 9 | #3,425 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 18 | #2,094 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 9 | #3,402 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 8 | #3,707 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 11 | #2,918 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 14 | #2,402 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,844 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,147 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 9 | #3,059 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,836 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Bethany a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bethany has been given almost only to girls: 184 boys in 111 years of records.
Girls and boys named Bethany: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bethany, and how old are they?
97,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 101,086 Americans ever recorded as Bethany. The median Bethany alive today is 35 years old; half are between 26 and 43.
The 2020 Census counted 89,509 people named Bethany (89,417 women and girls, 92 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 95,942 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 145 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,560 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 16,100 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 46,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 25,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,420 |
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 Bethany born?
The states with the most babies named Bethany are California, Texas and Pennsylvania, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 48 | #646 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 40 | #746 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 31 | #354 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 20 | #514 | 1.3× |
| New York | 18 | #866 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 15 | #664 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 13 | #1,125 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 12 | #550 | 1.2× |
| Virginia | 12 | #615 | 1.0× |
| Wisconsin | 12 | #424 | 1.0× |
Where Bethany is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bethany is most over-represented in Rhode Island: since 1915 it was given 2.2 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 girls’ 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 Bethany 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 108,470 babies since 1880, Bethany is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 362 of their 370 babies (98%), 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 Bethany
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 Bethany and names like it
- Compare Bethany and BethanieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sBethany peaked in 1987.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bethany since 1910.
- The top names of 1987The year the most babies were named Bethany.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Bethany alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.