Diminutive of Elizabeth, from Hebrew 'elisheva' meaning 'God is my oath'.
Betty began as a medieval English diminutive of Elizabeth, one of the most far-traveled names in the Western tradition. Elizabeth itself comes from the Hebrew Elisheva, usually understood as “God is my oath.” Through centuries of nicknaming, English created forms like Bess, Eliza, Beth, and Betty, with Betty becoming especially familiar by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
What started as a pet form eventually became a standalone name in its own right, so complete in its own personality that many people scarcely heard it as a nickname at all. The cultural life of Betty is unusually vivid. It has belonged to queens’ subjects, nursery rhymes, pin-up eras, suburban archetypes, and beloved public figures.
Betty Grable gave it Hollywood glamour; Betty Friedan gave it intellectual and political force; Betty White gave it warmth, wit, and astonishing longevity in popular affection. In comics, songs, and mid-century American life, the name sometimes stood for the all-American girl next door, and that familiarity made it feel approachable and bright. By the late twentieth century, Betty came to sound more vintage than youthful, but that is precisely why it has become charming again.
Like many compact old nicknames now being rediscovered, it has evolved from everyday commonness to retro chic. The name carries sweetness, but history has kept it from being slight: inside its cheerful brevity are religion, monarchy, feminism, film, and a great deal of social memory.