Beth

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Beth is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name247K records spelled Beth2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Bēth

• Spanish given name191K records spelled Beth20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, France, United Kingdom

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French

  Also written Běth, Béth, Bëth, Bèth, Bĕţh

• Greek given name7.1K records spelled Beth3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Italy

  Also written Μπετ, Mpet

• Turkish given name2.6K records spelled Beth7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Türkiye, Canada

  Languages: Turkish, Uzbek, Azerbaijani

  Also written Bëth

59 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Beth is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, The second letter of the Aramaic alphabet, 𐡁

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, Kurzform-Familienname, meist zu Elisabeth; 453 Träger.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

• In German, weibl. Vom., Kurzform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• English: short form of ELIZABETH , not used before the 19th century, when it became popular in America and elsewhere after publication of Louisa M. Alcott's novel Little Women (1868), in which Beth March is one of the four sisters who are the central characters. Pet form: Welsh: Bethan (now also popular elsewhere in the English-speaking world) .

  as a word

• In sga, third-person singular past subjunctive of at·tá

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 142 years between 1884–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Mary Beth Hurtb. 1946USAmerican stage and film actress
• Beth Grantb. 1949USAmerican actress
• Beth Broderickb. 1959USAmerican actress
• Marlee Matlinb. 1965USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1965)
• Amy Ryanb. 1968USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1968)
• Pinkb. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, songwriter, and actress (born 1979)
• Sara Bareillesb. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican recording artist; pop rock singer-songwriter and pianist
• Beth Dittob. 1981USAmerican singer
• Beth Behrsb. 1985USAmerican actress
• Beth Meadb. 1995GBEnglish footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 640 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Beth?

We estimate roughly 138 thousand people bear Beth (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Beth have the most bearers?

Beth is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled beth.

How common is Beth compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Beth is the 228th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Beth a male or female name?

Beth is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Beth mean?

Recorded meaning: 2 Short form of Elizabeth, not used before the 19th century, when it became popular in America and elsewhere after publication of Louisa M.