Bessie
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth, also used as a formal female given name
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/bɛsi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bessie is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- CNChina≈1 in 4.8K(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 6.2K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 8.8K
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)
- Sources
- 358 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈290,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth, also used as a formal female given name.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bessie 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 | — | ≈290,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | — | Bessie | 28 |
| US United States | #684 | 20,905 | 1 in 16K | 21K | Bessie | 358 |
| GB United Kingdom | #804 | ≈7,500 est. | ≈1 in 8.8K | listed | Bessie | 92 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈5,500 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Bessie | 5 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈5,000 est. | ≈1 in 43K | — | Bessie | 30 |
| CA Canada | #973 | ≈3,600 est. | ≈1 in 11K | 1 | Bessie | 101 |
| SG Singapore | #533 | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.2K | — | Bessie | 38 |
| HK Hong Kong | — | ≈570 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Bessie | 23 |
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; the gb-nisra-baby-names-ni register; 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)
Bessie is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Diminutif anglais d'Elizabeth; fêtée le 17 novembre.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In Dutch, alternative form of besje
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Afrikaans, berry
as a wordkaikki.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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Bessie Potter Vonnohb. 1872USAmerican sculptor (1872–1955)
- Bessie Thomashefskyb. 1873USUkrainian-American actress and comedian (1873–1962)
- Bessie Pease Gutmannb. 1876USartist and illustrator (1876-1960)
- Bessie Colemanb. 1892USAmerican aviator (1892–1926)
- Bessie Smithb. 1894USAmerican blues singer (1892–1937)
- Wallis Simpsonb. 1896USnot in their usual nameAmerican socialite and wife of the Duke of Windsor (1896-1986)
- Bessie Loveb. 1898USAmerican actress (1898–1986)
- Lillian Gordy Carterb. 1898USnot in their usual namemother of U.S. president Jimmy Carter
- Bessie Schonbergb. 1906DEGerman dancer, choreographer and teacher (1906-1997)
- Bessie Headb. 1937ZASouth African born Botswanan writer and teacher (1937–1986)
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 42 sources across 23 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 21K | #1,560 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1916 | 4.1K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1919 | 4.1K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1918 | 4.1K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1917 | 3.9K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1920 | 3.9K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1915 | 3.9K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1921 | 3.7K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1922 | 3.4K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1924 | 3.4K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1923 | 3.4K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1925 | 3.3K | — |
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
- What does the name Bessie mean, and where does it come from?
- A diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth, also used as a formal female given name. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Bessie have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 293 thousand people named Bessie in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bessie.
- What are other forms of the name Bessie?
- In the etymology graph, Lisa, Isabel and Betty are forms of the same name in other languages; Lillia is a recorded short or pet form; it is recorded as a short form of Elizabeth and Elsabeth.
- How common is the name Bessie?
- In the United States, the national register counted 20,905 people named Bessie in 2020, about 1 in 16 thousand residents.
- How common is Bessie compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Bessie is the 533rd most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- Is Bessie a male or female name?
- Bessie 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.
- How do you pronounce Bessie?
- A machine transcription gives /bɛsi/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Bessie?
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/bessieThe 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, “Bessie” — the 533rd most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.