Name Awesome

Buffy

Girls' name

My God is an oath, through Elizabeth

Buffy has been given to 3,312 babies in the U.S. since 1951. 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 1972, with 319 recorded.

Babies named Buffy, 2024

1 in 557,000

Buffy over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Buffy: meaning, origin, and history

My God is an oath, through Elizabeth

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Buffy means

Buffy belongs to the name family reached through Buffy → Elizabeth. Its meaning is “my God is an oath”.

Origin, language, and formation

Buffy is used in English and Cebuano.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Elizabeth.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Buffy is pronounced /ˈbʌfi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,306 girls were recorded with the name Buffy between 1951 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 319 in 1972; its best national rank was #529 in 1972.

In the United States, 6 boys were recorded with the name Buffy between 1971 and 1971. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1971; its best national rank was #4,449 in 1971.

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 Buffy?

Buffy had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 270,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Buffy 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 2024 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 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Buffy. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Buffys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Buffy was born before 1973 — so the typical Buffy is around 52 today.

Median birth year
1973
About 52 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
67.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,306
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 67.9% of all recorded uses (2,245).

Is Buffy 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 1972 (319)
Years since peak
53
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#529
1972

Spellings of Buffy

Buffy is the most-used spelling, taking 48.1% of the 6,879 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Buffy is used

Across 1910–2025, Buffy was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 66,149 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 25,000
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 25,000
  3. 3Tennessee1 in 25,000
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 33,333
  5. 5California1 in 50,000
  6. 6Colorado1 in 50,000
  7. 7Florida1 in 50,000
  8. 8Iowa1 in 50,000

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. Buffy has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Buffy around the world

Where Buffy 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.

  • England & Wales
    2019–2024
    #3,696
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1975–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Buffy

People whose public names include Buffy, 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.

Buffy 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
#529
1972
Peak year
1972
319 that year
First recorded
1951
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
3,306
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,449
1971
Peak year
1971
6 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
1971
All-time count
6
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Buffy

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

BuffieTaffyBuffiBufordBuffeyShiffyBuffEffyTiffyDuffyCoffyDaffyMuffySteffy

Names with a curve like Buffy

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

TamikoAnjanetteTarshaMendyCarieWindyLatoniaCatinaAnitraTawandaChristelShonna

Sibling names for Buffy

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 Buffy

Top names of 1972, Buffy's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1972Girls' names starting with B