It is such a shame that people have to be so ageist and fatphobic about this name. Even if it was a name for old or fat women (it is not, people’s names don’t dictate what they look like, and just because a name isn’t popular anymore doesn’t mean there aren’t kids with that name now), what’s so wrong with that? Being old or fat doesn’t mean you aren’t intelligent, strong, beautiful, wise, fascinating, or anything else—you can say you dislike a name without judging massive swaths of people just for existing.I don’t see anything wrong with this name, honestly. The idea that you shouldn’t use a name because it’s outdated, when a name is only outdated because people don’t use it sounds like a weird vicious cycle to me. It’s not my style of name and maybe it’s better left in the past, maybe it’ll result in too much bullying in our judgmental world, but I would love to meet a Bertha! I think people with new and old and different names makes the world a more interesting place :DBea, Beth, Bethy, Ber [bear], would be cute nicknames, I think :)
I don't see why everybody hates Bertha! It used to be so popular, why as a society have we unanimously started hating it? Like a lot of names, it's harsh if you say it that way, but if you say it pleasantly with a smile on your face, it's really alright. There's nothing about Bertha that's SO terrible.
The name Bertha was at its peak in the 1800s, and started a slow decline at the turn of the century. Bertha came a couple generations before today's grandmas, along with Emma, Lillian, Alice, Clara, and Grace. They were all considered grandma names a few decades ago; the only difference is that Bertha went out of fashion and people stopped using it completely, so it is considered outdated even after a hundred years, and so never made a comeback. So basically, though it went out of style, like Barbara and Cheryl, Bertha was at it's peak before them, meaning most Grandma Berthas are dead, along with the Grandma Florences and Hazels, and a new generation of grandmas has replaced them.
― Anonymous User 4/1/2024
4
The tough main character in the novel “Bertha and the Black Cats ” by Gail O. Dellslee.
― Anonymous User 9/6/2023
3
My mom is named Bertha. She was born in the late 70s to Mennonite parents. Since the Mennonite/Amish communities obviously embrace all things traditional and old fashioned, a name like Bertha fits right in.Although I’m biased, I genuinely don’t think it’s ugly, but I do genuinely think it’s outdated. However, just because you don’t like a name or think it ugly, or assume that the people who bear it are ugly, is absolutely ridiculous, ignorant and stupid, and what’s the point in ridiculing a name if nobody’s even using it anymore anyway? A few good things I want to say in favor of Bertha. 1. It’s an anagram for breath (which I think is beautiful). 2. It is very strong. 3. Bertha is Anne’s mothers name in Anne of Green Gables, and Anne says how glad she is that her parents had such beautiful names (and if Anne Shirley/Lucy Maud Montgomery likes it, so do I). 4. People won’t forget the name Bertha, it really does stand out (not always in a positive way thought lol). If I ever have a daughter I would love to honor my mother by either using her name as a middle name or using a name that is similar, like Betty, Betsy or Birdie (a vintage nickname for Bertha).
― Anonymous User 8/27/2023, edited 8/29/2023
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In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, & Shining Pearl, Bertha is a member of the Elite Four. She uses Ground-type Pokémon.
Bertha Wilson, CC, FRSC (1923 – 2007), was a Canadian jurist and the first female puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Before her ascension to Canada's highest court, she was the first female associate and partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt and the first woman appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. During her time at Osler, she created the first in-firm research department in the Canadian legal industry.
― Anonymous User 3/11/2023
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Bertie, Betty, Betsy and Birdie could be nicknames.
― Anonymous User 1/8/2023, edited 1/8/2023
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Dame Albertha Isaacs, DBE, [known as Bertha Isaacs] (née Hanna; 1900 – 1997) was a Bahamian teacher, tennis player, women's rights activist and politician. After a career as an elementary school teacher, she played on the international tennis circuit, winning both singles and doubles titles in the 1930s.Returning to the Bahamas, she became involved in the women's suffrage movement in the country, helping gain the vote in 1962. She was the second woman to be appointed as a Senator in the Bahamas and the first woman to be awarded the honorary title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. An annual trophy awarded at the Commonwealth Caribbean Lawn Tennis Championship bears her name. In 2012 on the fiftieth anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, the Bahamian government created a series of postage stamps to honor the women at the forefront of the movement. Isaacs appeared on a 70 cent stamp.
― Anonymous User 12/16/2022
2
Terrible! Too outdated. Completely unsuitable for young children but is GREAT on rude old women.
Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody (née Parker; 1907 – 1978) was a Native American archaeologist, working as an assistant in archaeology at the Southwest Museum. She is thought to be the first Native American female archaeologist of Abenaki and Seneca descent.
Reallllly gets on my nerves, sorry any Berthas. I hear the usage “Big Bertha” too much. If you have this name and don’t like it too I have some nicknames for you:Bethy, Beth.
― Anonymous User 1/9/2022
1
Tucker Budzyn once referred once referred to Linda as “Big Bertha”.
I don't mind it. People think it has an unfortunate pronunciation or something, but I think it's a tough, ballsy name. Bertha, kicking ass and taking names.
I love Bertha! My daughter's 2nd middle name is Bertha after my sister whose 2nd middle name was Bertha. I always preferred the English pronunciation because it sounded so otherworldly! If you're gonna pronounce Bertha as Behr-ta then you should just spell it as Berta. Bertha reminds me of a blonde, slim girl with a bright smile. I recommend this name but since it only has a 36% rating I'd recommend you use it as a middle name. Overall I rate Bertha a 10/10!
― Anonymous User 10/4/2020
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I'm a Bertha. I am slim and beautiful and very proud of my name it makes me feel special and I love it.
I think Bertha is an underappreciated name. Sure, it might sound a little rough and old-fashioned, but the meaning of the name itself is nice. I also think the name ages well and the nickname Bertie would be quite sweet! There are names far worse than Bertha.
Here comes big Bertha, they call her big mama. Rumor has it everywhere she goes, a huge earthquake follows shortly after.
― Anonymous User 8/15/2020
0
The German pronunciation is nice, but the English pronunciation is super ugly.
― Anonymous User 3/16/2020
2
This name stinks.
― Anonymous User 11/27/2019
-2
Bertha isn't really a good name. At least it's not as bad as the name Time- like what the heck are these names!?! Bertha reminds me of the female version of Bob! Both horrible names and no one should name their child that!
In 2018, 83 is the most common age for an American (U.S.) Bertha who is registered female with the Social Security Administration. It is the 617th most common female first name for living U.S. citizens.
― Anonymous User 10/5/2018
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A name, any name is what the bearer makes it. Nothing more nothing less. Wear your name proudly, with distinction and grace. Cheers to all the Berthas out there!
― Anonymous User 9/24/2018
17
I like it when it's pronounced BARE-ta, but BIRTH-a is not very pretty-sounding to me. Especially because it makes me think of "birthers" (racist people in the U.S. who claimed Barack Obama was not American). I am not sure where it got the connotation of being a fat woman's name, but I've heard that so many times. I don't think it says anything negative about a person who has the name Bertha (or any other name). People can have unattractive names and still be likeable. (Not to mention that there is nothing wrong with being fat.)
― Anonymous User 9/21/2018
2
Bertha is one of the worst names I've ever heard of! It's incredibly ugly.
Bertha Gifford was a farm wife in rural Catawissa, Missouri during the early 1900s who was accused of murdering 17 members of the local community. Some consider her to be America's third female serial killer, behind Lydia Sherman and Jane Toppan.
I think Bertha is a grand name. Not only beautiful, but grandiose, impressive and sophisticated. I love how it sounds in English, German, French and Spanish. It is an upper class name, difficult to be appreciated by the commoners. (i.e. Bertha is a distinguished name. But Jennifer, for example, is exactly the opposite, vulgar and threshed)I have known three Berthas. Neither of them are fat and two of them are very pretty women. The meaning of the name is "intelligent" which adds to the beauty of the name.
― Anonymous User 10/6/2016
4
The name Bertha was given to 30 girls born in the US in 2015.
My name is Berta and I pronounce it Behr-ta. I never knew that Germans pronounced it that way, and a like the way it sounds. I was named after my grandmother and I never thought of it as an ugly name until I was growing up and I would hear people pronounce it as Ber-tha or Berda. I started feeling bad about that name and feeling bad about myself because of it. I am not overweight and it's sad the way a name can really affect someone's perception of that person. For the people who do not like that name that is ok. It is not the most beautiful name but I would like people to not judge someone based on a name. You can have the most beautiful name in the world but if you are ugly on the inside then it doesn't really make up for it. So a name is just a name and that's what i'll keep telling myself. My name does not define me. What I do and how I treat people defines me.
Bertha is my name and I personally think it's a great name... I am pretty sure that the people who are saying it's a bad name they are are not Berthas. Besides, for your own information I am not fat and I am Bertha and I am practically in love with and very proud of my name.
― Anonymous User 8/18/2015
10
I think Bertha is a charming and classy name with plenty of wonderful vintage flair. :)
― Anonymous User 12/30/2014
5
I tried to like this name, I really did, but I just don't think the English pronunciation of the name sounds attractive what so ever. Whenever I hear this name I picture a VERY overweight woman barreling down the street, or someone yelling "I HAVE GIVEN BIRTH!". My mum and I much prefer the Deutsch pronunciation of the name, but only because that is how my nanny pronounces her name. The name has a wonderful meaning, but I would NEVER name my child this, maybe for a middle name, but never a first name.
This name is exponentially more attractive in any other European language where it's pronounced "BEHR-ta". It's a shame it sounds so off-setting and harsh in English, because this name has such a strong meaning/background.
This is one of my all-time favorite girl names, and I was fully 18 before I realized that the general perception of it is very negative. My own perception of it was shaped by two sources: L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, and Barbara Willard's Son of Charlemagne. -In Anne of Green Gables it is the name of Anne Shirley's mother and she refers to it as a lovely name. -In Anne of the Island, Bertha Shirley is described as having speaking eyes and writing letters that embodied her charming personality. -In Rilla of Ingleside, Anne's youngest, Bertha Marilla considers her first name to be beautiful and dignified. -In the children's book Son of Charlemagne, Bertha is the name of one of Charlemagne's daughters. She is the lovely, sweet, vivacious and adorable one who risks angering her father to marry the man she loves. Growing up with these positive images of the name, I developed a mental picture of a tall, reed-slim, elegant girl with big, luminous eyes and a Mona Lisa smile. Even the sound of it is beautiful I think, in either pronunciation, gentle, without any sharp edges. The English pronunciation is like a soft, low sigh, and the German one is just so musical! I would use this as a middle name for my daughter, so that she doesn't have to suffer from the generally negative view of this name.
Am I the only one that doesn't think this name is that bad, but just really old-fashioned? I mean, sure you'd definitely have to be on something to think that "oh this child looks like a Bertha" but honestly, it's just a name, and a really old-fashioned one at that!
I love the German pronunciation of this name, but in America it just sounds awful! It's so sad that the English language butchers the name Bertha like it does. But in Germany, es ist toll. ;)
My late mother, who would be in her 90's, was named Bertha, as were at least 4 of her friends, and to a woman, they loathed it. But names have fashions, and though "Bertha" sounds fat, old, butch and nasty to our ears, in France Berthe.
In L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" series, Anne's mother, who died when Anne was an infant, was named Bertha, and Anne considers it "a lovely name" for this reason. She eventually gives it to her youngest daughter, Bertha Marilla.
I do not like this name at all, neither pronunciation - German or English - sounds pretty to me. My mother always said this was a name for a cow. I think it conjures up an image of an old, overweight woman with curled hair who devotes her life to baking. Not the best image.
It looks very beautiful, the German pronunciation is beautiful as well, but the English pronunciation is awful. If I were to use this, which I might, I'd definitely use the German pronunciation.
― Anonymous User 1/16/2009
2
I can't picture this name on a little girl, but I have nothing against this name, anyway. I like the sound of it. =)
Hehe, I'm sorry to those who are named Bertha, but I seriously dislike this name. This gives me a mental image of an overweight woman who smokes and gives you a toothy grin. But hey, if I had a choice between Bertha and Placenta, which one do you think I'd choose? Both equally bad, but my gosh the latter is just awful and yes there is a girl named that!
I honestly have never realy liked the name Bertha. This is as there once was a game you could play at the seaside called Big Bertha. While fun, this ruined the name for me.
'Big Bertha' is both the slang term for a fat woman and the name of the Howitzer gun, used in the First World War - hence the name's unpopularity in recent decades. The gun itself was named after Bertha Krupp (1886-1957), whose family were arms manufacturers based in Essen, Germany.
It was mentioned Big Bertha was a term for a fat woman and then mentioned the World War I cannon. This is a bit backwards, because the World War I cannon and its fame was the cause of Bertha becoming stereotyped as a fat woman. Fictional characters named Bertha have often been not just fat but also loud and obnoxious, like a cannon. As one of the most popular names of Victorian times, Bertha would probably be returning to popularity now in the USA along with other names like Hazel, Mabel, Emma, etc., if it were not for the fact that its image has been cemented as "fat" by the constant reuse of the term "Big Bertha" for various fictional characters and commerical products (such as golf clubs) over the years. It is so bad to be fat in modern culture that Bertha hasn't been able to be revived along with other Victorian names.It is interesting, though, that one of the main characters of the HBO series "The Gilded Age" is a nouveau riche socialite in New York City in 1882 named Bertha Russell, played by actress Carrie Coon. It is a rare instance of writers giving a character a name appropriate for the time even though it has a very different image today. However, the character, who is about age 40, would actually have been an early Bertha in terms of its 19th century popularity. The peak of the name was 1883, the year after the series begins, so it really would have been a bit more accurate to have a baby or young girl named Bertha in "The Gilded Age" rather than a middle-aged social climber. It will certainly be interesting to see if the character can have any positive impact on the use of the name, overcoming its stereotypical "fat and loud" image.
Bertha Pappenheim was the real name of Anna O., hysterical patient of famous psychoanalyst Josef Breuer. She's also Doctor Breuer's obsession in the book "When Nietzsche Wept", by Irvin D. Yalom.
This was my great-grandmother's middle name. I'm glad they decided not to make it my middle name (I'm named for her). The German pronunciation is pretty though and since that is the language her family spoke at home when she was growing up I guess it wouldn't have been so bad.
Why does Bertha sound so awful? Because we aren't pronouncing it correctly, that's why! "BER-ta" sounds much better than "BUR-tha", doesn't it? Why do English speakers slur their vowels?
I agree, when I hear the name Bertha, an overweight old red-ringleted woman comes into my mind, it probably didn't help that this is what Bertha looks like in Gosford Park.
The German pronunciation is BEHR-tah, and rather beautiful. It's a shame this pronunciation didn't carry over into English, and we are instead left with a name that appears to be universally loathed. [pronunciation noted -ed]
Bertha is Edward Rochester's first wife in "Jane Eyre". She has gone mad and Mr. Rochester keeps her locked up in the top of their house. She is insanely jealous of Jane once she finds out that Jane is marrying Mr. Rochester. An interesting character.
I don’t see anything wrong with this name, honestly. The idea that you shouldn’t use a name because it’s outdated, when a name is only outdated because people don’t use it sounds like a weird vicious cycle to me. It’s not my style of name and maybe it’s better left in the past, maybe it’ll result in too much bullying in our judgmental world, but I would love to meet a Bertha! I think people with new and old and different names makes the world a more interesting place :D
Bea, Beth, Bethy, Ber [bear], would be cute nicknames, I think :)