Berna

Girls' name

Young

Berna has been given to 1,466 babies in the U.S. since 1895. 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 1929, with 48 recorded.

Babies named Berna, 1991

1 in 779,000

Berna over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Berna: meaning, origin, and history

Young

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Berna means

Berna means “young”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Berna is used in Turkish.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,466 girls were recorded with the name Berna between 1895 and 1991. Its highest annual count was 48 in 1929; its best national rank was #1,053 in 1929.

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 Berna?

Berna had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1991, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1991: 1 in 779,000; 5 of 3,892,928 births
Among girls only: 1 in 375,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1991: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 539,676 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Berna 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 1991 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 539,676 children born in 1991 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Berna. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Bernas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Berna was born before 1938 — so the typical Berna is around 87 today.

Median birth year: 1938; About 87 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 21.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 4.6%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 413; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 21.0% of all recorded uses (308).

Is Berna 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 1929 (48)
Years since peak: 96; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 23.0% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,053; 1929

Spellings of Berna

Berna is not the most common spelling — Edna is, with 15.0% against Berna's 0.07%.

Edna15.0%295,116
Bertha10.6%207,870
Vera7.6%149,456
Jenna7.6%148,587
Lena7.4%146,479
Leona5.8%113,330
Bella4.3%83,721
Verna3.5%69,113

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 Berna is used

Across 1910–2025, Berna was most concentrated in New Mexico — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 743,033 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1New Mexico1 in 100,000
2California1 in —
3Kansas1 in —
4Louisiana1 in —
5Missouri1 in —
6New York1 in —
7Texas1 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. Berna has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Berna around the world

Where Berna 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
1996–1998
#3,848
in 1998
France
1995–2022
#7,779
in 2022

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Berna 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: #1,053; 1929
Peak year: 1929; 48 that year
First recorded: 1895
Last recorded: 1991
All-time count: 1,466
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Berna

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

Berit Berlin Berlyn Berta Berklee Bergen Aarna Beryl Bernie Berdie Mirna Berlynn Berkeley Berry Bert Berkley Arna Bertina Berma Charna Beryle Bertie Merna Aparna

Sibling names for Berna

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

For a sister

Marvel Socorro Ofelia Edward Donald Ardith Paul Charline

For a brother

Normand Frances Carrol Sanford Jules Rolland Gaylord Laverne

Explore around Berna

Top names of 1929, Berna's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1929 Girls' names starting with B Turkish Girl Names Turkish Names