Beryl

Where Beryl comes from

From beryl or an anglicization of Yiddish בערל (berl, literally “little bear”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Beryl
  • Yiddish
Beryl through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #518 among girls, with 11 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1902
    Beryl Clutterbuck Markham born
    British writer, aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer
  3. 1920
    Peak, #374
    311 babies named Beryl, the most in any year.
  4. 1932
    Beryl Bainbridge born
    English writer
  5. 1934
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #536.
  6. 1980
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name. From this year on, more girls have.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from English derived from the gem beryl.
  • A male given name from Yiddish, meaning “little bear”.
Namesakes
  • Beryl Bainbridge · English writer, 1932–2010
  • Beryl Clutterbuck Markham · British writer, aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer, 1902–1986
  • Beryl Penrose · Australian tennis player, 1930–2021
  • Beryl Reid · British actress, 1919–1996
  • Beryl Burton · English racing cyclist, 1937–1996

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.