Bucky
A diminutive form of the given name Buchanan, derived from the Gaelic meaning "from the monastery on the inlet."
Name Census estimates that about 801 living Americans carry the first name Bucky. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bucky today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bucky births was 1979 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bucky. 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.
People living today
801
~ 1 in 427,908 Americans
Peak year
1979
50 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,584
Tracked since 1931
Census
Bucky in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 650 people with the first name Bucky, which placed it at #17,115 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
#17,115
National first-name rank
People counted
650
650 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bucky
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bucky is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.3%). 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 Bucky 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 Bucky at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 544
- Two or more races4.6% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.3% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 19
- Black or African American2.6% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 12
Popularity
Bucky: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bucky from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 268 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bucky 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 Bucky during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Buckys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Bucky
The name Bucky is a diminutive or nickname form of the name Buchanan, which is of Scottish Gaelic origin. The name Buchanan is derived from the Gaelic words "buth" meaning "house" and "chanain" meaning "canon" or "preacher." It is believed to have originated as a surname in the 11th century for someone who lived near the house or church of a preacher.
The earliest recorded use of the name Bucky as a given name dates back to the late 19th century. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Bucky was Bucky Harris, an American baseball player and manager who was born in 1896 and died in 1977. He played for several teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Senators, and also managed the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
Another notable individual with the name Bucky was Bucky Fuller, an American architect, systems theorist, and inventor who lived from 1895 to 1983. He is best known for his geodesic dome designs and his popularization of the term "Spaceship Earth" to describe the planet's ecosystem.
In literature, the name Bucky is famously associated with the character Bucky Barnes, the childhood friend and sidekick of Captain America in the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in 1941 and has been a prominent figure in various comic book series, as well as in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
A more recent figure with the name Bucky is Bucky Covington, an American country music singer and former contestant on the television show American Idol. He was born in 1977 and has released several studio albums and singles since his debut in 2007.
While the name Bucky has Scottish origins, it has been used across various cultures and regions over time, often as a nickname or shortened form of the name Buchanan. The name's association with literary and pop culture characters has likely contributed to its enduring popularity and recognition.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Bucky
People
Bucky + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bucky 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
Bucky: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bucky?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 801 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bucky 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 427,908 US residents.
Is Bucky a common name?
We classify Bucky as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,027 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bucky most popular?
The single biggest year for Bucky was 1979, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bucky is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bucky in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 650 people with the name Bucky, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,115 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 Bucky 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 Bucky?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bucky leans strongly male. 627 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 26 female bearers (4.0%). 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 Bucky?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bucky is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (4.3%). 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 Bucky most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bucky in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (544 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 Bucky in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bucky a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bucky 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 Bucky still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bucky 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 Bucky 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 many people have Bucky as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.