Name Awesome

Bea

#2,218 in 2025Girls' name

She who makes happy, through Beatrice

Bea has been given to 2,342 babies in the U.S. since 1883. In 2025 it ranked #2,218 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2024, with 89 recorded.

Babies named Bea, 2025

1 in 39,900

Bea over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bea: meaning, origin, and history

She who makes happy, through Beatrice

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Bea means

Bea belongs to the name family reached through Bea → Beatrice. Its meaning is “she who makes happy”.

Origin, language, and formation

Bea is used in English, Dutch, Hungarian and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Beatrice, Beatrix, Beata, Beáta and Beatriz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Bea is pronounced /biː/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,342 girls were recorded with the name Bea between 1883 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 89 in 2024; its best national rank was #834 in 1908.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,150 in 2020 to #2,218 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,314 in 2015 to #2,218 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Bea?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 39,900
83 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 19,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,218
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
27,687 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bea sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5001%

Put another way: gather 27,687 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bea. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Beas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bea was born before 1955 — so the typical Bea is around 70 today.

Median birth year
1955
About 70 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
17.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
36.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,236
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 17.5% of all recorded uses (410).

Is Bea rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−81
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+932
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,096
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
3.32×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
93.3%
Peak was 2024 (89)
Years since peak
1
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#834
1908

Where Bea is used

Across 1910–2025, Bea was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 246,452 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2New York1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Georgia1 in —
  5. 5Iowa1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Ohio1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Bea has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Bea around the world

Where Bea ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2000–2025
    #816
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2009–2025
    #632
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2008–2025
    #608
    in 2025
  • France
    1968–2025
    #7,157
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2003–2024
    #794
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1958–2005
    #775
    in 2005

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Bea

People whose public names include Bea, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Bea in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Bea. Linked forms have their own page here.

BiaBeataBeateBeatrixBeatrice

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Bea by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,218
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 932
Best rank ever
#834
1908
Peak year
2024
89 that year
First recorded
1883
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,342
Count in 2025
83

Names similar to Bea

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BeauBeautyBeatrixBeataBeauxBeaulahBeatrisBeatrizBeadieBeautifulBeancaBeatricBeasleyBeannaBeautiBeatryceBeahBeatriceBeateBeautiiBeattaBeautonBeaulaBeautifull

Names with a curve like Bea

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Bea, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

CarlotaOdeliaValentineLennaLettyMaidaEllamaeTheodoraNellaAleenCoraleeLeonie

Sibling names for Bea

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Bea

Top names of 2024, Bea's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1908Girls' names starting with BUncommon Dutch Girl Names