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Bernardine

Girls' name

Feminine form of Bernardino

Bernardine has been given to 3,128 babies in the U.S. since 1888. 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 1925, with 85 recorded.

Babies named Bernardine, 1978

1 in 635,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bernardine: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Bernardino

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Bernardine means

Bernardine is a feminine form of Bernardino.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Bernardine is used in French (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /bɛʁ.naʁ.din/ for Bernardine.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Bernardine → Bernardino → Bernardo → Bernardus → *Bernuharduz. The family’s meaning is “bear + hard, brave”, recorded in Proto-Germanic with the source elements bernuz and harduz.

Origin, language, and formation

Bernardine is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Bernardino.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,128 girls were recorded with the name Bernardine between 1888 and 1978. Its highest annual count was 85 in 1925; its best national rank was #777 in 1931.

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 Bernardine?

Bernardine had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1978, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1978
1 in 635,000
5 of 3,173,639 births
Among girls only
1 in 306,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1978
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
439,961 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bernardine 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 1978 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 439,961 children born in 1978 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bernardine. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Bernardines were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bernardine was born before 1932 — so the typical Bernardine is around 93 today.

Median birth year
1932
About 93 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
22.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
14.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
569
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 22.8% of all recorded uses (712).

Is Bernardine 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 1925 (85)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
52.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#777
1931

Spellings of Bernardine

Bernardine is not the most common spelling — Bernadine is, with 87.5% against Bernardine's 12.5%.

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 Bernardine is used

Across 1910–2025, Bernardine was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 75,170 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 20,000
  2. 2Illinois1 in 50,000
  3. 3Maryland1 in 50,000
  4. 4Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 100,000
  6. 6Massachusetts1 in 100,000
  7. 7Michigan1 in 100,000
  8. 8Minnesota1 in 100,000

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. Bernardine has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Bernardine around the world

Where Bernardine 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.

  • Ireland
    1965–1975
    #503
    in 1975
  • France
    1900–1967
    #1,523
    in 1967
  • South Australia
    1957–1987
    #684
    in 1987

Popularity data from Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Bernardine

People whose public names include Bernardine, 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.

Bernardine in other languages

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

Bernhardina

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

Bernardine 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
#777
1931
Peak year
1925
85 that year
First recorded
1888
Last recorded
1978
All-time count
3,128
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Bernardine

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

BernadineBernestineBerdineBerkeleyBerlineMadelaineAugustineBerkleighValentineBereniceClementineJackelineMarcelineJacqualineBerneiceBerkleyBernettaMaybellineBernadetteJoselineKarolineJazzmineRosalineAvangeline

Names with a curve like Bernardine

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

WilliaLoyceRomaineEleaseMargeReathaCletaPalmaRuthaNetaRozellaLavada

Sibling names for Bernardine

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 Bernardine

Top names of 1925, Bernardine's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1931Girls' names starting with B