Bridget

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Girl · Irish

Bridget

Say it: BRIJ-it

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Irish Brighid, probably from a Celtic word meaning 'high, exalted'.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Used in England from the late Middle Ages and steady in Tudor parish registers.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1970s

In the United States

90,599 babies given this name since 1880
At its height in 1973, about 1 in 528 girls
361 babies in 2020

Through the ages

Used by

Irish English Swedish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Brigid, Bridgett, Brigit

Irish	Bríd
Swedish	Birgitta
Italian	Brigida
French	Brigitte

Famous bearers

Saint Brigid of Kildare
Saint Bridget of Sweden

Names worth a look

MurielGirlProbably from a Celtic name meaning 'sea-bright', from muir 'sea' and geal 'bright'.Middle Ages · peak 1922 · forgotten

ÚnaGirlUncertain; sometimes linked to uan 'lamb', which is probably folk etymology.Middle Ages · peak 1890

SiobhánGirlIrish form of Norman French Jehanne (Jeanne), feminine of Jehan, ultimately from Hebrew Yohanan 'Yahweh is gracious'.Middle Ages · peak 1979

BrigidGirlFrom Old Irish Brigit, from Proto-Celtic brigantī 'the high, exalted one'; the same root gives the British goddess…Early Medieval · peak 2000

AoifeGirlUncertain. Often said to mean 'beauty' or 'radiance' (from aoibh), but this is not established; a link with the…Middle Ages · peak 2018

ÁineGirlUncertain. Linked to Old Irish áine 'splendour, brilliance', a gloss some scholars accept and others doubt.Middle Ages · peak 2004

BrigitteGirlFrom Irish Brigid, from a Celtic root usually read as 'high, exalted'.Modern · peak 1966

BirgittaGirlThe Swedish form of Irish Brigid, from a Celtic word meaning 'exalted, high one'.Middle Ages

Where this comes from

Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
Parish baptism registers
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.