Berenice

Where Berenice comes from

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Βερενῑ́κη (Berenī́kē, “bringer of victory”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Macedonian (compare the native word Φερενῑ́κη (Pherenī́kē)), from φέρω (phérō, “to bear, to carry, to bring”) + νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”). Doublet of Veronica.
— Wiktionary's entry for Berenice
  • Ancient Greek
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 120 BC
    Berenice III born
    queen of Egypt
  2. 1883
    First appearance
    #692 among girls, 8 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1898
    Berenice Abbott born
    American photographer
  4. 1898
    Peak, #510
    37 babies named Berenice — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1931
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,941.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek, notably of ancient queens of Egypt.
Namesakes
  • Berenice III · queen of Egypt, born 120 BC
  • Berenice Abbott · American photographer, 1898–1991
  • Berenice of Chios · Greek noblewoman; third wife of Mithridates VI of Pontus, 50 BC–71 BC
  • Berenice A. Carroll · American political scientist and activist, 1932–2018
  • Berenice Quezada · Nicaraguan model and beauty pageant titleholder, born 1993

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.