Bear Boy
How popular is Bear?
#853 boy name in 2025
286 baby boys were named Bear in the US in 2025, making it the 853rd most popular boy name.
Bear popularity over time
| Rank in 2025 | #853 for boys (▼ 27 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 286 boys |
| 10-year trend | Rising fast (+113% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #1,317 in 2015, #899 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 2022 (332 boys) |
| Highest rank | #760 in 2022 |
| First recorded | 1975 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 100% boys, 0% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.2% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Bear counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Bear family of names ranked #760 for boys in 2025 (#752 the year before), with 306 babies in all.
| Spelling | Boys in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Bear | 286 | 93% |
| Behr | 20 | 7% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Bear is most popular
Babies named Bear per 1,000 boys born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
Bear by decade
| Decade | Baby boys | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 6 | #4,795 |
| 1980s | 5 | #6,260 |
| 1990s | 11 | #8,104 |
| 2000s | 172 | #2,347 |
| 2010s | 1,405 | #897 |
| 2020s | 1,757 | #760 |
Boy names about as popular as Bear
Questions
- Is Bear a boy or girl name?
- Bear is mostly a boy name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Bear were boys.
- How popular is the name Bear?
- 286 baby boys were named Bear in the US in 2025, making it the 853rd most popular boy name.
- When was Bear most popular?
- Bear peaked in 2022, when 332 boys were given the name. Its highest rank was #760 in 2022.
- How many people are named Bear?
- 3,356 babies have been named Bear in the US since 1880. We estimate about 3,338 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 6.
- Where is Bear most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Bear was most common in Arkansas, at 0.6 of every 1,000 boys born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.