Name Awesome

Bebe

Girls' name

She who makes happy, through Beatrice

Bebe has been given to 1,579 babies in the U.S. since 1904. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1932, with 61 recorded.

Babies named Bebe, 2024

1 in 557,000

Bebe over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bebe: meaning, origin, and history

She who makes happy, through Beatrice

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Bebe means

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

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

In most cases, the name is a diminutive of Beatrice.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Bebe (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Bebe is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Beatrice.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,579 girls were recorded with the name Bebe between 1904 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 61 in 1932; its best national rank was #900 in 1932.

How common is Bebe?

Bebe had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 270,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bebe 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 2024 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bebe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Bebes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bebe was born before 1933 — so the typical Bebe is around 92 today.

Median birth year
1933
About 92 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
28.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
463
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 28.4% of all recorded uses (449).

Is Bebe 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1932 (61)
Years since peak
93
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#900
1932

Spellings of Bebe

Bebe is not the most common spelling — Beth is, with 35.2% against Bebe's 0.35%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Bebe is used

Across 1910–2025, Bebe was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 282,562 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 100,000
  2. 2Georgia1 in 100,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 100,000
  4. 4California1 in —
  5. 5New York1 in —
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 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. Bebe has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Bebe around the world

Where Bebe 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
    1999–2025
    #3,333
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1955–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Bebe by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#900
1932
Peak year
1932
61 that year
First recorded
1904
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
1,579
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Bebe

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

PhebeFebeHebeDebePhoebeBeebeRebeEbe

Sibling names for Bebe

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 Bebe

Top names of 1932, Bebe's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1932Girls' names starting with BWhimsical Girl Names