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Buster

#6,867 in 2025Boys' name

English word name: buster

Buster has been given to 8,178 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #6,867 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 246 recorded.

Babies named Buster, 2025

1 in 276,000

Buster over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Buster: meaning, origin, and history

English word name: buster

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Buster means

Buster takes the English word buster into personal-name use.

Origin, language, and formation

Buster is used in English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Buster is pronounced /ˈbʌstɚ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,173 boys were recorded with the name Buster between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 246 in 1918; its best national rank was #238 in 1909.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,108 in 2020 to #6,867 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,327 in 2015 to #6,867 in 2025.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Buster between 1918 and 1918. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1918; its best national rank was #4,917 in 1918.

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 Buster?

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
#6,867
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

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

When Busters were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Buster was born before 1928 — so the typical Buster is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
22.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,932
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 22.3% of all recorded uses (1,822).

Is Buster 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
−351
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+241
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,540
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.71×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
4.9%
Peak was 1918 (246)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#238
1909

Spellings of Buster

Buster is not the most common spelling — Hunter is, with 59.2% against Buster's 1.8%.

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 Buster is used

Across 1910–2025, Buster was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 4,762 boys, against 1 in 18,966 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

021 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 4,762
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 5,000
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 7,143
  4. 4Alabama1 in 9,091
  5. 5West Virginia1 in 9,091
  6. 6Mississippi1 in 10,000
  7. 7Tennessee1 in 11,111
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 12,500

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

Buster around the world

Where Buster 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
    1996–2025
    #2,664
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2018–2018
    #704
    in 2018
  • South Australia
    1985–2004
    #589
    in 2004

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

Notable people named Buster

People whose public names include Buster, 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.

Buster by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,867
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 241
Best rank ever
#238
1909
Peak year
1918
246 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,173
Count in 2025
12

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,917
1918
Peak year
1918
5 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
1918
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Buster

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

ColterFosterBaxterPorterSlaterKarterWebsterKolterDexterCutterWinterPieterAlisterMisterVesterKutterSutterLesterJeterMasterCoulterGunterCarterLuster

Names with a curve like Buster

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

OrvalAlphonseElmoFerdinandEllsworthCleoWaldoMilfordBertramEarleLymanCyril

Sibling names for Buster

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 Buster

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