Bessie is a distinctive choice, ranked #1743 in 2024. Your child is likely to be the only Bessie in their class.
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UK Rank 2024
#1743
About the Name Bessie
Bessie has seen a notable decline in recent years, dropping 616 places in five years. It was most popular in 2014 at #1094 â parents choosing it today are making a deliberately counter-trend decision. The name has been a consistent presence in UK records since 1996.
Bessie is distinctive enough that your child will likely be the only one in both their class and their school â standing out on every register.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the name Bessie
Unlikely. With around 17 UK babies named Bessie per year, your child will almost certainly be the only Bessie in her class, and possibly the only one in the whole school.
Bessie has been declining in UK popularity, dropping 616 places in the last five years. Its peak was #1094 in 2014. Choosing it now means she is likely to be among the last of her generation with this name.
Bessie is a distinctive choice sitting outside the mainstream UK top names. Parents choosing less common names often find their children appreciate the individuality as they grow up, rarely needing to add an initial to distinguish themselves.
Bessie does not appear in the US top 1,000 baby names, making it a distinctively British choice â your child is unlikely to encounter American Bessies in the wild.
17
UK babies named Bessie (2024)
< 1
Expected classmates with this name (class of 28)
~0.0
In a school of 600
↓ 616 places
Rank change (last 5 years)
🏫 Who else is in the room?
In a typical UK class of 28, highlighted children share the name Bessie
Likely around 1 other Bessie in the class
UK Popularity (1996–2024)
Rank and birth count · ONS official data
No US data available for this name
✨ Similar names to Bessie
Names with a similar style — each with their own classroom story
Bessie Clayton was an American Broadway and Vaudeville dancer and choreographer. She was an influential bridge between classical ballet and stage dancing.
Elizabeth Coleman was an early American civil aviator. She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, and is the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot's license.
Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s.
Elizabeth Rayner Belloc was one of the most prominent English feminists and campaigners for women's rights in Victorian times and also a poet, essayist and journalist.
Bessie Loo was an American actress, casting director, and talent agent. She owned the Bessie Loo Talent Agency for over 40 years, and represented many of the Asian-American actors in 20th-century Hollywood.
Diamond Bessie was the popular name given to Bessie Moore, nÊe Annie Stone (although other sources give her birth name as Annie Moore), a prostitute whose murder in the woods outside Jefferson, Texas propelled her to the level of local legend. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, allegedly by her husband, Abraham Rothschild.
Bessie Thomashefsky, born Briche Baumfeld-Kaufman, was a Ukrainian-born Jewish American singer, actress and comedian, a star in Yiddish theater beginning in the 1890s. She was the wife and stage partner of Boris Thomashefsky, the most popular Yiddish leading man of his era.