Bedford
Torn between Bedford and another name? Compare them side by side →
Meaning
from the English surname for someone from Bedfordshire, after the town of Bedford, from Old English Bedanford, "Bede's ford"
How popular is Bedford around the world?
In the United States, 5 babies were named Bedford between 2020 and 2025.
Bedford is on the official records of the United States.
United States
1 in 4.4M
In the United States, 5 babies were named Bedford between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Bedford has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Not on 16 other recordsWhy
- Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
- Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown.
- Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years.
- Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown.
- Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years.
- Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only).
- Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Bedford
Most people given the name Bedford in the United States were born between 1940 and 1979. The Bedford you meet today is most often in his 60s or 70s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Names that fit alongside Bedford
The Bedford deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Bedford truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Bedford fits with your family’s names and surname.
Does Bedford fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Bedford to your family’s tree →