Bernice
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Berenice, often spelled Bernice, is a classic name of Greek origin meaning "bringer of victory"
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/bɝˈnis/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bernice is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Ghana it is the 45th most common given name.
- GHGhana≈1 in 1.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 3K
- CACanada≈1 in 3.8K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 424 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈460,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ghana, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Berenice, often spelled Bernice, is a classic name of Greek origin meaning "bringer of victory." It has a rich history, borne by ancient queens of Egypt and a notable princess in the New Testament, giving it an aura of royalty, strength, and historical depth.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bernice counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈460,000 est. | ≈1 in 3K | — | Bernice | 12 |
| US United States | #482 | 48,083 | 1 in 6.9K | 48K | Bernice | 424 |
| GH Ghana | #45 | ≈25,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Bernice | 65 |
| GB United Kingdom | #525 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 4K | 3 | Bernice | 177 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 14K | — | Bernice | 49 |
| CA Canada | #500 | ≈10,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.8K | 3 | Bernice | 177 |
| SG Singapore | #305 | ≈2,100 est. | ≈1 in 3K | — | Bernice | 76 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Bernice 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.
The name Berenice is the Macedonian Greek form of 'Pherenike', meaning "bringer of victory" or "victorious", from the words 'phero' (to bring) and 'nike' (victory).
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Bernice's significance in a religious context is primarily historical. Her presence at Paul's hearing underscores the reach of his ministry into the highest echelons of Roman provincial power and serves as a backdrop against which the gospel's advance is highlighted.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In Irish, Contracted form of Berenice, from Greek Pherenike, 'to bring victory'.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, A female given name from Ancient Greek.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, Bernice är en engelsk form av Berenīkæ, som i sin tur är en makedonisk form av grekiskans Pherenikē. Det betyder ’segerbringerska’. Namnet Berenike nämns även i Apostlagärningarna, och det fick därför, i formen Ber(e)nice, en renässans hos 1600-talets engelska puritaner som sökte bibliska namn till sina barn. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 2 december.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Bernice Layne Brownb. 1908USFirst Lady of California (1908-2002)
- Billie Birdb. 1908USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1908-2002)
- Agnes Martinb. 1912USnot in their usual nameAmerican painter (1912–2004)
- Ray Eamesb. 1912USnot in their usual nameAmerican artist, designer, and filmmaker (1912–1988)
- Bea Arthurb. 1922USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and comedienne (1922–2009)
- Bernice Rubensb. 1923GBBritish writer (1923–2004)
- Eddie Bernice Johnsonb. 1934USAmerican politician (1934–2023)
- Alaina Reed Hallb. 1946USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and singer (1946–2009)
- Bernice Kingb. 1963USAmerican minister and daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 1963)
- Sydney Sweeneyb. 1997USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1997)
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 71 sources across 40 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 48K | #929 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 489 | #929 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 35 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 7 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1993 | 6 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 3 | #1,149 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 1995 | 3 | #639 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 1999 | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Bernice come from?
- Berenice, often spelled Bernice, is a classic name of Greek origin meaning "bringer of victory." It has a rich history, borne by ancient queens of Egypt and a notable princess in the New Testament, gi… Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- Is Bernice a male or female name?
- Bernice 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 Bernice mean?
- Recorded meaning: Berenice, often spelled Bernice, is a classic name of Greek origin meaning "bringer of victory."
- In which country does Bernice have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 462 thousand people named Bernice in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bernice.
- What are other forms of the name Bernice?
- In the etymology graph, Veronica, Ronnie and Berenice are forms of the same name in other languages; Bernie is a recorded short or pet form.
- How common is the name Bernice?
- In the United States, the national register counted 48,083 people named Bernice in 2020, about 1 in 6.9 thousand residents.
- How common is Bernice compared with other names?
- In Ghana, Bernice is the 45th most common given name of 14,081 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Bernice?
- A machine transcription gives /bɝˈnis/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Bernice?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/berniceThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Bernice” — the 45th most common given name in Ghana. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.