Betsy is the English diminutive of Elizabeth — from the Hebrew Elisheba ("my God is my oath"). A top-200 US baby name from 1908 to 1973. Betsy Ross (1752-1836) — American upholsterer and seamstress; by long-standing American legend, the maker of the first official US flag in June 1776 at the request of George Washington — the original "thirteen stars in a circle" design. Although the historical evidence is debated (the story was first published in 1870 by her grandson), Ross has become the embodiment of the citizen-craftswoman in the founding mythos of the United States. The Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia receives 250,000+ visitors annually. Betsy DeVos (born 1958) — US Secretary of Education 2017-2021 under the Trump administration; her 2017 confirmation required the first-ever tie-breaking vote by a Vice President (Mike Pence). Betsy Brandt (born 1973) — Breaking Bad (2008-2013) as Marie Schrader; The Michael J. Fox Show (2013-2014). Betsy Wetsy — Ideal Toy Company's 1934 bestselling doll that wetted its diaper. Betsy West — Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker (RBG 2018). Saint Betsy is the same as Saint Elizabeth.
Featured throughout US history and American media.
Betsy does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Betsy reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.