Humanverse

Buckley vs Bucky

American parents have registered 1,084 Buckleys since 1880, against 1,027 Buckys. Buckley is still ahead, with 65 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Buckley against Bucky, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Buckley 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 98 years in which either name was published, Bucky for 51 years and Buckley for 47 years. The lead changed hands 20 times.

13 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Buckley Bucky
Total US births 1,0841,027
Most in one year 7550
Babies in 2025 65under 5
Estimated living today 880760
Median age today 952
Peak year 20241979
Best rank 2,028th boys1,304th boys
Rank in 2025 2,183rdunranked
First recorded 19161931
Girls / boys 0 / 1,0840 / 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 Buckleys are over 9. That is 43 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: Buckley and Bucky.