Girl · Irish, through Latin and Swedish
Birgitta
Say it: bir-GIT-ah
Meaning
The Swedish form of Irish Brigid, from a Celtic word meaning 'exalted, high one'.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Spread through the cult of Saint Birgitta, Sweden's patron saint, and very popular in the mid-20th century.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 85 babies given this name since 1959
- At its height in 1967, about 1 in 137,600 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Brita, Britt
| Norwegian | Birgit |
|---|---|
| Danish | Birte |
| Finnish | Pirkko |
| Sami | Biret |
| Irish | Brigid |
Famous bearers
- Saint Birgitta (Bridget) of Sweden, 14th-century mystic
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.