Bette vs Bettye
American parents have registered 34,919 Bettes since 1880, against 22,967 Bettyes. Bette is still ahead, with 8 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Bette Bettye
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 126 years in which either name was published, Bette for 98 years and Bettye for 28 years. The lead changed hands 29 times.
- 1883–1900 Bettye ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1901–1943 Bette ahead, apart from 4 short spells
- 1948–1950 Bettye ahead
- 1953–1989 Bette ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1996–1998 Bettye ahead
- 1999–2025 Bette ahead
17 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Bette | Bettye | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 34,919 | 22,967 |
| Most in one year | 1,742 | 763 |
| Babies in 2025 | 8 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 10,000 | 8,800 |
| Median age today | 78 | 79 |
| Peak year | 1924 | 1933 |
| Best rank | 151st girls | 220th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 10,917th | unranked |
| First recorded | 1896 | 1883 |
| Girls / boys | 34,897 / 22 | 22,920 / 47 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Where each one is strongest
- Bette Iowa (3.0×), Nebraska (2.8×), Montana (2.7×)
- Bettye Mississippi (8.6×), Alabama (6.6×), Arkansas (6.1×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Bette and Bettye.