Bernice

Greek
"she who brings victory"

Bernice Origin and Meaning

The name Bernice is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "she who brings victory".

Rarely heard today-- it fell off the list around 1980--Bernice is a biblical name of Greek origin. In the Bible, she is a sister of King Agrippa.

Bernice was a Top 100 name in the US for more than three decades--from 1900 to 1936--hitting a high of Number 39 in 1921. Last year in the US, fewer than 50 baby girls were named Bernice.

The original spelling of the name was Berenice, the name of the wife of Ptolemy I of Egypt, and it's also the name of a fourth century saint. Berenice Abbott was an important twentieth century photographer, and Bernice was the birth name of Bea Arthur. One of F. Scott Fitzgerald's best remembered short stories is "Bernice Bobs her Hair."

Bernice has a plethora of nicknames--you can take your pick of Berry, Benny, Bernie, Binnie and Bunny.

# 935 in the US

Bernice Rank in US Top 1000

# 1170 on Nameberry

Bernice Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Bernice Popularity

Famous People Named Bernice

  • Bernice Ackerman
    first woman weathercaster in the US
  • Bernice Bing (1936
    1998), Chinese,American abstract expressionist artist who was also an activist in the San Francisco lesbian and gay community of her era
  • Bernice Pauahi Bishop
    Hawaiian princess
  • Bernice Burgos
    video vixen
  • Bernice Claire
    American actress
  • Bernice Fisher
    American civil rights activist
  • Bernice "Fitz" Fitz
    Gibbon, American ad writer
  • Bernice Frankel
    birth name of actress Bea Arthur
  • Bernice Thurman Hunter
    Canadian children's author
  • Bernice Jan Liu
    Canadian,Hong Kong actress; Miss Chinese International 2001
  • Bernice Albertine King
    daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Bernice Morgan
    Canadian novelist
  • Bernice L. Neugarten
    American psychologist
  • Bernice Rubens
    Welsh novelist
  • Bernice Zamora
    American Chicana poet
  • Agnes Bernice Martin
    abstract painter

Bernice in Pop Culture

  • Bernice Surprise "Benny" Summerfield
    Doctor Who book character
  • Bernice Kimmelman
    character in movie "Domestic Import"
  • Bernice Halper
    Luann's BFF in comic strip "Luann" by Greg Evans
  • Bernice
    a successful writer of cheap tales, the wife of newspaperman John Stockton in "Dark Laughter" (1925) by Sherwood Anderson
  • Bernice Pruitt
    character in the 1998 film 'Hope Floats'
  • "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (1920)
    short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Bernice "Bernie" Clasky
    character in the film, "Spanglish"