Bev
Bev was last recorded in 1971, when 9 babies were given it; 1,003 Americans have been recorded with it between 1917 and 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bev by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bev mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bev is “a diminutive of the female given names Beverly and Beverley.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bev?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,585, in 1971; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
127 babies in 1959, the peak
Bev peaked in 1959, when 127 girls were given it, #928 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 9 | #5,585 | 5.4 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,426 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,015 | 4.1 |
| 1968 | 14 | #3,623 | 8.5 |
| 1967 | 15 | #3,356 | 9.1 |
| 1966 | 19 | #2,852 | 11.2 |
| 1965 | 27 | #2,298 | 15.3 |
| 1964 | 50 | #1,611 | 26.4 |
| 1963 | 49 | #1,623 | 25.4 |
| 1962 | 84 | #1,204 | 42.7 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 98 | #1,108 | 48.6 |
| 1960 | 117 | #992 | 57.9 |
| 1959 | 127 | #928 | 62.8 |
| 1958 | 111 | #984 | 55.2 |
| 1957 | 73 | #1,228 | 35.7 |
| 1956 | 30 | #1,972 | 14.9 |
| 1955 | 17 | #2,736 | 8.7 |
| 1954 | 13 | #3,173 | 6.7 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,262 | 4.3 |
| 1949 | 8 | #3,921 | 4.7 |
| 1948 | 16 | #2,498 | 9.4 |
| 1947 | 24 | #1,998 | 13.5 |
| 1946 | 16 | #2,400 | 10.2 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,753 | 8.4 |
| 1944 | 10 | #2,961 | 7.5 |
| 1943 | 16 | #2,263 | 11.5 |
| 1942 | 10 | #3,003 | 7.4 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,595 | 5.8 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,428 | 4.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Bev a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bev has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 30 years of records.
Girls and boys named Bev: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bev, and how old are they?
An estimated 811 Americans named Bev and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (81% of everyone recorded); the median is 66 years old and half are between 64 and 68. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,404 people named Bev (2,339 women and girls, 65 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 867 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Bev rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 Bev born?
The states with the most babies named Bev are Ohio, California and Michigan, with 57% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 109 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| California | 64 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 63 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 43 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 34 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Washington | 27 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Minnesota | 24 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Indiana | 21 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Wisconsin | 12 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Iowa | 7 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Bev is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bev is most over-represented in Ohio: since 1917 it was given 2.0 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 Bev with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Bev
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 Bev and names like it
- Compare Bev and BarbBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sBev peaked in 1959.
- Ohio’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bev since 1910.
- The top names of 1959The year the most babies were named Bev.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Bev alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with BMost given first.