Name Awesome

Bud

#6,866 in 2025Boys' name

English word name: bud

Bud has been given to 9,502 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #6,866 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1928, with 215 recorded.

Babies named Bud, 2025

1 in 276,000

Bud over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bud: meaning, origin, and history

English word name: bud

English

What Bud means

Bud takes the English word bud into personal-name use.

Origin, language, and formation

Bud is used in English. Its origins include English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Bud is pronounced /bʌd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,502 boys were recorded with the name Bud between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 215 in 1928; its best national rank was #233 in 1889.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,865 in 2020 to #6,866 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #8,863 in 2015 to #6,866 in 2025.

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 Bud?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 142,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,866
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bud 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 2025 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 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bud. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Buds were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bud was born before 1933 — so the typical Bud is around 92 today.

Median birth year
1933
About 92 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,813
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.8% of all recorded uses (1,882).

Is Bud 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
−632
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,999
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,997
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.50×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
5.6%
Peak was 1928 (215)
Years since peak
97
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#233
1889

Where Bud is used

Across 1910–2025, Bud was most concentrated in Idaho — about 1 in 7,692 boys, against 1 in 35,754 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in —).

013 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Idaho1 in 7,692
  2. 2Oklahoma1 in 10,000
  3. 3Utah1 in 12,500
  4. 4Washington1 in 12,500
  5. 5Montana1 in 14,286
  6. 6Alabama1 in 20,000
  7. 7Kentucky1 in 20,000
  8. 8Michigan1 in 20,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Bud has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Bud around the world

Where Bud ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    2005–2005
    #643
    in 2005

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Bud

People whose public names include Bud, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Bud by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,866
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,999
Best rank ever
#233
1889
Peak year
1928
215 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,502
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Bud

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

BuddyBuddBuddieBuddha

Names with a curve like Bud

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Bud, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LymanDewittVernFreemanWilfordWiltonHerschelWinfredOdisRollandColumbusLenard

Sibling names for Bud

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 Bud

Top names of 1928, Bud's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1889More old man namesBoys' names starting with BEnglish Boy Names