Bernie

Where Bernie comes from

* (male): From Bernard + -ie. * (female): From Bernadette + -ie or Bernice + -ie.
— Wiktionary's entry for Bernie
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #909 among boys — 5 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1898
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1937
    Peak, #468
    144 babies named Bernie — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1939
    Bernie Casey born
    American actor, artist, and professional football player
  5. 1941
    Bernie Sanders born
    United States Senator from Vermont
  6. 1974
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,091.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Bernard, also used as a formal given name.
  • A diminutive of the female given names Bernice and Bernadette.
Namesakes
  • Bernie Sanders · United States Senator from Vermont, born 1941
  • Bernie Casey · American actor, artist, and professional football player, 1939–2017
  • Bernie Parent · Canadian ice hockey player, 1945–2025
  • Bernie Shaw · Canadian singer, born 1957
  • Bernie Hamilton · American actor, 1928–2008

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.