Betty
A pet form of Elizabeth, from Hebrew Elisheva.
Popularity, 1880–2025
This pet form of Elizabeth defined the flapper generation, with Betty Boop and later Betty Grable keeping it on screen.
Betty appears in the national records from the very first year, 1880. It has ranked among the top 100 names for American girls in 61 different years between 1900 and 1962. It spent 24 years inside the top 10. Its biggest year was 1930, when 38,240 newborn girls received the name, ranking it No. 2 nationally. All told, 1,004,857 Americans have been given the name since 1880.
Related names
Other spellings on record: Bettie (38,478), Bettye (22,967), Betti (849), Beauty (756) (total births since 1880)
Other names that share a story: Elizabeth
Explore Betty interactively →By the decade
| Decade | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,519 | No. 136 |
| 1890s | 3,196 | No. 119 |
| 1900s | 7,921 | No. 72 |
| 1910s | 44,894 | No. 15 |
| 1920s | 283,096 | No. 2 |
| 1930s | 300,409 | No. 2 |
| 1940s | 194,623 | No. 5 |
| 1950s | 103,204 | No. 26 |
| 1960s | 38,397 | No. 68 |
| 1970s | 11,708 | No. 169 |
| 1980s | 5,163 | No. 354 |
| 1990s | 2,638 | No. 572 |
| 2000s | 1,446 | No. 1150 |
| 2010s | 1,744 | No. 1130 |
| 2020s | 1,280 | No. 1012 |
Births and rank shown for girls, the sex more often given the name. The Social Security Administration omits name–year combinations with fewer than five births.
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Data: U.S. Social Security Administration national baby-name file, 1880–2025.