Bernardette
A feminine diminutive of Bernard, derived from the Germanic words for "bear" and "brave".
Name Census estimates that about 178 living Americans carry the first name Bernardette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bernardette today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bernardette births was 1964 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bernardette. 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
178
~ 1 in 1,925,586 Americans
Peak year
1964
12 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
1995 SSA rank
#13,682
Tracked since 1935
Census
Bernardette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 222 people with the first name Bernardette, which placed it at #35,960 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
#35,960
National first-name rank
People counted
222
222 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bernardette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernardette is White at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.6%) and Black (26.1%). 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 Bernardette 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 Bernardette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.0% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino30.6% · 68
- Black or African American26.1% · 58
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 11
- Two or more races1.8% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Bernardette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bernardette from the 1930s through to the 1990s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 55 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bernardette 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 Bernardette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bernardettes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Bernardette
The name Bernardette has its origins in the Romance languages, specifically French and Italian. It is a feminine form of the masculine name Bernard, which derives from the Germanic words "bern" meaning "bear" and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy." The name can be traced back to the 8th century AD.
One of the earliest known uses of the name Bernardette dates back to the 12th century, when it was recorded in historical documents from the region of Aquitaine in southwestern France. The name gained prominence in the 19th century with the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a young French peasant girl who reported visions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, in 1858.
Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) was a sickly and impoverished child who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a series of apparitions in a grotto near Lourdes. Her visions led to the establishment of the Marian shrine at Lourdes, which has since become one of the most significant pilgrimage sites for Catholics worldwide.
Another notable figure named Bernardette was Bernardette Renée Soubirous (1946-1964), a French Roman Catholic mystic and stigmatist. She was known for her devotion to the Virgin Mary and was believed to have experienced visions and stigmata (the appearance of bodily wounds resembling those of Christ's crucifixion).
In literature, Bernardette is the name of the protagonist in the novel "The Song of Bernadette" by Franz Werfel, published in 1941. The book tells the story of Bernadette Soubirous and her visions at Lourdes, and it was later adapted into a popular film in 1943.
Other historical figures with the name Bernardette include Bernardette Chodron (1944-2014), an American Buddhist nun and author, and Bernardette Devlin (born 1947), an Irish political activist and former Member of Parliament.
While the name Bernardette has its roots in the French and Italian cultures, it has since gained popularity in various parts of the world, particularly among Catholic communities, due to its association with Saint Bernadette Soubirous and the apparitions at Lourdes.
People
Bernardette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bernardette 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
Bernardette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bernardette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 178 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bernardette 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 1,925,586 US residents.
Is Bernardette a common name?
We classify Bernardette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 232 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bernardette most popular?
The single biggest year for Bernardette was 1964, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bernardette is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bernardette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 222 people with the name Bernardette, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,960 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 Bernardette 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 Bernardette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bernardette appears almost entirely female. Of the 229 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Bernardette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bernardette is White at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.6%) and Black (26.1%). 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 Bernardette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bernardette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.0% (80 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 Bernardette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bernardette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bernardette 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 Bernardette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bernardette 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 Bernardette 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 Bernardette?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.