Betsey
Recorded 1884–2022 · United States
Betsey was most popular in 1942, when 62 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,751 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 2,481 people named Betsey.
Betsey over time
How old is the name Betsey?
Betsey first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1884, which makes it about 141 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 107 of the 142 years since.
How many people are named Betsey?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 2,481 American births named Betsey between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 1,508 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Betsey in 2025?
Betsey was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Is Betsey getting more or less popular?
Betsey is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 5 births a year across 2021–2025 against 7 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Is Betsey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Betsey is a girl’s name — 100.0% of the 2,481 Americans given it were girls and 0.0% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 100% girls and 0% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
How old is someone named Betsey?
Roughly 1,508 Americans named Betsey are alive today — 61% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 65 years old, and half are between 50 and 77.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Where Betsey is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Betsey on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org