Beryl - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. be-ryl, ber-yl ] The girl name Beryl is also used as a boy name, though it is more popular for girls. It is pronounced BEHRahL ^KEY. Beryl has its origins in the English language. It is used largely in English and German. From beryl ; berullos ; vaidurya. The personal name is derived from the name of the typically yellow-green gemstone, of which emerald is a variety. The jewel name is derived via the Greek 'berullos' from the Sanskrit 'vaidurya'. In the Bible, the eighth foundation stone of the wall of New Jerusalem was beryl. The name was adopted by English speakers at the end of the 19th century, along with other jewel-related first names.

Forms of the name include the English pet form Berry and the English spelling variant Beril. See also the related form, the English and German Cheryl.

Beryl is rare as a baby girl name. At the modest peak of its usage in 1912, 0.025% of baby girls were named Beryl. It had a ranking of #376 then. The baby name has suffered a substantial drop in frequency since then, and is currently of only irregular use. Out of all girl names in its family, Beryl was nevertheless the most frequently used in 2007. Beryl has mainly been a girl name in the last century. There were 2 times more girls than boys who were named Beryl in 1944.

Baby names that sound like Beryl include the English Beril, the English Brielle, the English Beverlee, the English and German Beverley, and the English and German Beverly.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Beryl: B as in "be (B.IY)" ; EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)"

Details of famous persons named Beryl:
Actress Beryl Reid, born June 17, 1919 - October 13, 1996, Hereford, Herefordshire, England.
Artist Beryl Cook, born 10 September 1926 - 28 May 2008, Epsom, Surrey, England.
Author Beryl Bainbridge, born 21 November 1934, Liverpool, England.
Aviator Beryl Markham, born 26 October 1902 - 3 August 1986, Leicester, England.

Popularity Trend
for Beryl
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Beryl
in 2007