Buena

Girls' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Buena has been given to 987 babies in the U.S. since 1882. 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 1917, with 34 recorded.

Babies named Buena, 1959

1 in 832,000

Buena over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Buena: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Buena means

Buena is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Buena is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 987 girls were recorded with the name Buena between 1882 and 1959. Its highest annual count was 34 in 1917; its best national rank was #662 in 1889.

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 Buena?

Buena 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 girls only: 1 in 405,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1959: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 576,373 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Buena sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 Buena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Buenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Buena was born before 1920 — so the typical Buena is around 105 today.

Median birth year: 1920; About 105 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 24.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 20.0%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 51; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 24.1% of all recorded uses (238).

Is Buena 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 1917 (34)
Years since peak: 108; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 26.6% average annual change
Best rank ever: #662; 1889

Spellings of Buena

Buena is not the most common spelling — Brenda is, with 47.4% against Buena's 0.08%.

Brenda47.4%608,478
Lena11.4%146,479
Elena8.4%108,013
Luna6.8%87,715
Rena3.1%39,124
Dena2.5%32,479
Brenna2.3%29,371
Juana1.5%18,793

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Buena is used

Across 1910–2025, Buena was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 274,669 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Alabama1 in —
2Georgia1 in —
3Oklahoma1 in —
4Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Buena has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Buena by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #662; 1889
Peak year: 1917; 34 that year
First recorded: 1882
Last recorded: 1959
All-time count: 987
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Buena

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

Olena Amena Ilena Abena Seena Veena Zeena Meena Raena Adena Neena Arena Irena Reena Dalena Jalena Jolena Lavena Melena Ciena Marena Buelah Syrena Valena

Sibling names for Buena

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

For a sister

Albina Nelle Orpha Antonette Harriette Winnifred Maurine Johnie

For a brother

Regis Meyer Rosario Lyman Winfield Dorsey Granville Abe

Explore around Buena

Top names of 1917, Buena's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1889 Girls' names starting with B