Butch
An English diminutive of Norman French butcher, originally denoting a butcher by profession.
Name Census estimates that about 2,639 living Americans carry the first name Butch. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Butch today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Butch births was 1956 (139 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Butch. 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
2.6K
~ 1 in 129,880 Americans
Peak year
1956
139 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,029
Tracked since 1919
Census
Butch in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,293 people with the first name Butch, which placed it at #6,853 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
#6,853
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,293 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Butch
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Butch is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Butch 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 Butch at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.4% · 1,798
- Black or African American7.4% · 169
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 130
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 86
- Two or more races3.1% · 70
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 40
Popularity
Butch: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Butch from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 1,189 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Butch 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 Butch during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Butchs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Butch, while Wisconsin, Kansas, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Butch
The name Butch has its origins in the English language, deriving from the Middle English word "boche," which meant a male deer or stag. This word itself can be traced back to the Old French "boche," meaning a bundle or lump, possibly referring to the rounded shape of a stag's hindquarters.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "Butch" started being used as a nickname or shortened form of names like Butcher or Hutchinson. It was initially associated with a rugged, masculine demeanor, particularly among working-class men.
One of the earliest recorded uses of Butch as a given name dates back to the late 19th century. In 1882, a professional baseball player named Butch Olson played for the Milwaukee Brewers. However, it wasn't until the mid-20th century that Butch gained wider popularity as a first name in its own right.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Butch. For example, Butch Cassidy (born Robert LeRoy Parker, 1866-1908) was a famous American train robber and the leader of the Wild Bunch gang in the American Old West. Another well-known figure was Butch Hartman (born Randolph Wilkins Hartman IV, 1965), an American animator, producer, and voice actor best known for creating the Nickelodeon animated series "The Fairly OddParents" and "Danny Phantom."
In the world of sports, Butch Huskey (born William Leon Huskey Jr., 1971) was a professional baseball player who played for several Major League Baseball teams, including the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners. Butch Vig (born Bryan David Vig, 1955) is a renowned American record producer, musician, and songwriter, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage.
Butch Hartman, the American animator, producer, and voice actor, was born in 1965 and is still active in the industry today. His creation, "The Fairly OddParents," has been a popular and influential animated series since its debut in 2001.
While Butch is primarily an English name, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and countries around the world, often as a nickname or shortened form of longer names. However, its origins can be traced back to the Middle English language and its association with masculinity and ruggedness.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Butch
People
Butch + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Butch 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
Butch: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Butch?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,639 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Butch 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 129,880 US residents.
Is Butch a common name?
We classify Butch as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,423 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Butch most popular?
The single biggest year for Butch was 1956, when 139 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Butch is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Butch in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,293 people with the name Butch, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,853 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 Butch 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 Butch?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Butch leans strongly male. 2,264 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 28 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Butch?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Butch is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Butch most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Butch in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (1,798 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 Butch in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Butch a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Butch 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 Butch still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Butch 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 Butch 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 Americans are named Butch?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.