Berkeley

Where Berkeley comes from

From Old English beorc (“birch”) + leah (“meadow, leigh”). Equivalent to birch + -ley (“lea”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Berkeley
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1923
    First appearance
    #4,967 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1984
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 2017
    Peak, #1,761
    119 babies named Berkeley — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes

We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Berkeley hasn't yet.

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.