Name Awesome

Bub

Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Bub has been given to 54 babies in the U.S. since 1900. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1918, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Bub, 1959

1 in 832,000

Bub over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bub: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Bub means

Bub is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Bub is used in Zazaki.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 54 boys were recorded with the name Bub between 1900 and 1959. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1918; its best national rank was #1,229 in 1904.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Bub?

Bub had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1959, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1959
1 in 832,000
5 of 4,157,642 births
Among boys only
1 in 427,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1959
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
576,373 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bub sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1959 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 576,373 children born in 1959 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bub. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Bubs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bub was born before 1919 — so the typical Bub is around 106 today.

Median birth year
1919
About 106 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
33.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
29.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
5
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 33.3% of all recorded uses (18).

Is Bub rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1918 (8)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,229
1904

Bub by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,229
1904
Peak year
1918
8 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
1959
All-time count
54
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Bub

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BubbaBubbyBubber

Sibling names for Bub

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Bub

Top names of 1918, Bub's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1904Boys' names starting with B