Bessie

Where Bessie comes from

From Bess + -ie.
— Wiktionary's entry for Bessie
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #23 among girls — 796 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1889
    Peak, #9
    2,343 babies named Bessie — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1892
    Bessie Coleman born
    American aviator
  4. 1894
    Bessie Smith born
    American blues singer
  5. 1943
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #190.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth, also used as a formal female given name.
Namesakes
  • Bessie Smith · American blues singer, 1894–1937
  • Bessie Coleman · American aviator, 1892–1926
  • Bessie Love · American actress, 1898–1986
  • Bessie Emery Head · South African born Botswanan writer and teacher, 1937–1986
  • Bessie Eyton · actress, 1890–1965

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.