Humanverse

Buck vs Bucky

American parents have registered 6,610 Bucks since 1880, against 1,027 Buckys. Buck is still ahead, with 76 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Buck against Bucky, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Buck Bucky

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Buck for 145 years and Bucky for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Buck Bucky
Total US births 6,6101,027
Most in one year 10250
Babies in 2025 76under 5
Estimated living today 3,400760
Median age today 4452
Peak year 19191979
Best rank 597th boys1,304th boys
Rank in 2025 1,992ndunranked
First recorded 18801931
Girls / boys 0 / 6,6100 / 1,027

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Buckys alive today are over 52; half the Bucks are over 44. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Buck and Bucky.