First-principles calculations are carried out to investigate the stability, electronic structure and magnetic properties of Be2C nanoribbons (Be2C-NRs) with their ribbon axis along the a and b axes. It is found that except for b-Be2C-NR with the C site terminated edge, a-Be2C-NRs and other b-Be2C-NRs possess good structural stabilities at room temperature. In addition, H passivation enables b-Be2C-NR with C site terminated edge to stabilize at room temperature by saturating the dangling bonds at edges. Furthermore, stable a-Be2C-NRs and b-Be2C-NRs are all nonmagnetic semiconductors and their band gaps are significantly dependent on the edge configuration and the ribbon width. In contrast, H passivated b-Be2C-NR with C site terminated edge is half-metallic with a magnetic ground state, irrespective of the ribbon width. In particular, H passivated b-Be2C-NR with C site terminated edge has a strong intra-edge ferromagnetic coupling interaction in the ground state, and an inter-edge ferromagnetic interaction is found in small-width H passivated nanoribbon. The calculated density of states and the spin density distribution show that the p-p hybridization interaction involving polarized electrons is responsible for intra-edge and inter-edge ferromagnetic coupling. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.