Girls' name · peaked in 1959

Betsy name popularity since 1925

46,524 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Betsy. Half of them were born in 1960 or earlier, so the typical Betsy is about 66 years old in 2026. Betsy peaked in 1959 as the #228 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 46,524; Named Betsy, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1959; #228 for girls that year
Typical age: About 66; Median birth year 1960
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #2,724 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 100.0% girls; 46,514 girls · 10 boys
Most popular in: North Carolina; 2.36× its national share

Peak year is the year Betsy made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Betsy births per year, 1925–2025

1959 was the biggest year for Betsy both by count and as a share of all babies.

Fastest rise: Between 2001 and 2006, Betsy became 2.8× more common, from 1 in 14,500 baby girls to 1 in 5,140.
Steepest fall: Between 2006 and 2011, its share of baby girls fell by 62%, from 1 in 5,140 to 1 in 13,500.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Betsy's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Betsy.

Decade by decade

Babies named Betsy in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	1,487	0	–
1930s	3,929	0	#322
1940s	6,980	5	#266
1950s	10,561	0	#275
1960s	8,558	5	#287
1970s	5,461	0	#398
1980s	4,059	0	#507
1990s	2,014	0	#1,055
2000s	1,805	0	#1,672
2010s	1,204	0	#1,696
2020–25	456	0	#2,724

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

41.0% of babies named Betsy from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Baby Boom years (1946–1964). The full split by generation:

Where Betsy is most popular

The index compares Betsy's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Betsy.

State	Index	Babies
North Carolina	2.36×	2,846
Connecticut	2.15×	991
Pennsylvania	1.63×	3,532
Ohio	1.46×	2,862
Massachusetts	1.43×	1,451

Other spellings

Spellings that sound like Betsy and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.

Spelling	Girls	Peak year
Betsy (this page)	46,514	1959
Betsey	2,169	1889

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Betsy's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Betsy.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Betsy (1959).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data