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Butler

Boys' name

From French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier; literal meaning unconfirmed

Butler has been given to 987 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1919, with 31 recorded.

Babies named Butler, 1996

1 in 608,000

Butler over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Butler: meaning, origin, and history

From French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier; literal meaning unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Butler means

Butler is a given name.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

* (English surname): From Middle English Butler. * (Anglicized surname): From French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier. * (placename): From the surname

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Butler (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Butler is used in English.

Butler comes through Middle English Butler and French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 987 boys were recorded with the name Butler between 1880 and 1996. Its highest annual count was 31 in 1919; its best national rank was #518 in 1886.

How common is Butler?

Butler had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1996, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1996
1 in 608,000
6 of 3,646,048 births
Among boys only
1 in 316,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1996
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
421,209 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Butler 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 1996 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 421,209 children born in 1996 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Butler. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Butlers were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Butler was born before 1923 — so the typical Butler is around 102 today.

Median birth year
1923
About 102 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
20.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
131
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 20.2% of all recorded uses (199).

Is Butler 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 1919 (31)
Years since peak
106
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#518
1886

Spellings of Butler

Butler is not the most common spelling — Luther is, with 78.4% against Butler's 1.2%.

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 Butler is used

Across 1910–2025, Butler was most concentrated in South Carolina — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 454,787 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1South Carolina1 in 100,000
  2. 2Arkansas1 in —
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Louisiana1 in —
  5. 5Mississippi1 in —
  6. 6North Carolina1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 in —

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

Butler 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
#518
1886
Peak year
1919
31 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
1996
All-time count
987
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Butler

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

CutlerKailerCuylerKhylerKeylerFullerKeplerTaylerSylerBaylerZylerKeslerCylerBrylerFowlerRylerTellerKesslerKellerKaylerWheelerWellerSadlerKeiler

Sibling names for Butler

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 Butler

Top names of 1919, Butler's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1886Boys' names starting with BOccupational Names