Berit
A feminine name of Scandinavian origin meaning "bright" or "to shine".
Name Census estimates that about 638 living Americans carry the first name Berit. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Berit today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Berit births was 2006 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Berit. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
638
~ 1 in 537,233 Americans
Peak year
2006
25 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,629
Tracked since 1958
Census
Berit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 980 people with the first name Berit, which placed it at #12,628 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#12,628
National first-name rank
People counted
980
980 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Berit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berit is White at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Berit described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Berit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.3% · 924
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 21
- Two or more races1.4% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 10
- Black or African American0.8% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Berit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Berit from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 181 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Berit remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Berit by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Berit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Berits live
Origin
Meaning and history of Berit
Berit is a feminine given name of Norse origin, derived from the Old Norse word "Bera," which means "to bear" or "to carry." It was a popular name in Scandinavia during the Viking Age, particularly in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
The name Berit is believed to have been first recorded in the 9th century AD, during the height of the Viking era. It was a common name among Norse women, especially those from noble or wealthy families. The name was often associated with strength, resilience, and the ability to endure hardships.
One of the earliest known references to the name Berit can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which are a collection of historical narratives and stories from the Viking Age. The Sagas mention several women named Berit, including Berit Arnorsdottir, a 10th-century Icelandic noblewoman.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Berit. One of the most famous was Berit Wallenberg (1924-2021), a Swedish humanitarian who worked tirelessly to rescue Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. She was the sister of the renowned Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Another notable Berit was Berit Åsland (1936-2021), a Norwegian politician and diplomat who served as the first female Secretary-General of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1997.
In the world of arts and literature, Berit Hildre (1825-1890) was a Norwegian poet and novelist who wrote extensively about the lives of working-class women in Norway during the 19th century.
Berit Lindholm (1924-2018) was a Finnish actress and director who had a long and successful career in both film and theater. She was best known for her roles in several Finnish films during the 1950s and 1960s.
Berit Berthelsen (1944-2021) was a Greenlandic politician and activist who played a crucial role in the movement for Greenland's independence from Denmark. She served as the first female Prime Minister of Greenland from 1979 to 1980.
People
Berit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Berit as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Berit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Berit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 638 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Berit going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 537,233 US residents.
Is Berit a common name?
We classify Berit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 670 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Berit most popular?
The single biggest year for Berit was 2006, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Berit is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Berit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 980 people with the name Berit, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,628 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Berit in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Berit?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Berit leans strongly female. 947 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 29 male bearers (3.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Berit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Berit is White at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Berit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Berit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (924 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Berit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Berit a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Berit in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Berit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Berit in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Berit can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Berit?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.