Buchanan
An English surname turned given name, perhaps referencing a dwelling place of box trees.
Name Census estimates that about 86 living Americans carry the first name Buchanan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Buchanan today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Buchanan births was 2020 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Buchanan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Buchanan. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
86
~ 1 in 3,985,516 Americans
Peak year
2020
10 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,087
Tracked since 1996
Census
Buchanan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 176 people with the first name Buchanan, which placed it at #41,537 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#41,537
National first-name rank
People counted
176
176 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Buchanan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Buchanan is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Buchanan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Buchanan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.9% · 130
- Black or African American15.3% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 4
- Two or more races2.3% · 4
Popularity
Buchanan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Buchanan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 41 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Buchanan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Buchanan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Buchanan
The name Buchanan is of Scottish origin, derived from the Gaelic words "buth" meaning "house" and "chanain" meaning "canon" or "ridge." It is believed to have originated as a place name, referring to a house or dwelling on a ridge. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 12th century in Scotland.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Sir Maurice Buchanan was a prominent Scottish knight who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English. He was a supporter of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
Another notable bearer of the name was George Buchanan, a 16th-century Scottish humanist scholar, historian, and poet. He was a prominent figure in the Scottish Renaissance and served as a tutor to King James VI of Scotland, who later became King James I of England.
In the 17th century, James Buchanan was a Scottish historian and writer, best known for his work "De Jure Regni apud Scotos" (The Law of Kingship in Scotland), which argued for limited monarchy and the right of the people to resist tyrannical rulers.
In the 19th century, James Buchanan served as the 15th President of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He was born in 1791 in Pennsylvania and was the last president born in the 18th century. His presidency was overshadowed by the growing tensions that ultimately led to the American Civil War.
Another notable figure with the name Buchanan was Robert Buchanan, a Scottish novelist, poet, and dramatist born in 1841. He was a close friend of Charles Dickens and wrote several popular works of fiction and poetry during the Victorian era.
While the name Buchanan has Scottish origins, it has been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with Scottish or British influences. However, its historical roots and earliest recorded uses can be traced back to Scotland, where it was likely derived from a place name describing a dwelling on a ridge.
People
Buchanan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Buchanan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Buchanan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Buchanan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 86 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Buchanan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,985,516 US residents.
Is Buchanan a common name?
We classify Buchanan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 87 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Buchanan most popular?
The single biggest year for Buchanan was 2020, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Buchanan is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Buchanan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 176 people with the name Buchanan, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,537 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Buchanan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Buchanan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Buchanan leans strongly male. 153 people counted with this name were male (85.5%), compared with 26 female bearers (14.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Buchanan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Buchanan is White at 73.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Buchanan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Buchanan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.9% (130 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Buchanan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Buchanan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Buchanan in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Buchanan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Buchanan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Buchanan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Buchanan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.