Starbuck
A name of English origin meaning "buck" or "male deer".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Starbuck. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Starbuck today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Starbuck births was 1979 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Starbuck. 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 Starbuck. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
1979
11 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
1979 SSA rank
#3,782
Tracked since 1979
Popularity
Starbuck: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Starbuck 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 Starbuck during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 11 | 0 | 11 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Starbuck
The name Starbuck is believed to have originated from the Old English words "stær" meaning "star" and "bucc" meaning "buck" or "male deer". This suggests the name may have initially referred to a male deer with a distinctive star-shaped marking on its forehead or coat.
In the early 17th century, the name appeared in literary works such as the play "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, where a character named Starbuck is mentioned. This is one of the earliest known references to the name in written form.
The first recorded person with the name Starbuck was Valentine Starbuck, an early settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. He was born in England around 1610 and immigrated to America, establishing a family line that continued to use the name.
One notable figure with the name Starbuck was Nathaniel Starbuck, a whaling captain from Nantucket, Massachusetts, who lived from 1838 to 1913. He is believed to have inspired the character of Starbuck in Herman Melville's famous novel "Moby Dick", published in 1851.
Another historical figure bearing the name was Charles Starbuck, an American inventor and businessman who lived from 1832 to 1908. He is credited with developing several innovations in the manufacturing of wire and nails.
In the late 19th century, Edward Starbuck, born in 1857 and died in 1919, was a prominent American psychologist and philosopher who made significant contributions to the study of religion and mysticism.
Lastly, Starbuck Island in the Pacific Ocean was named after Brevet Major Starbuck, a 19th-century American military officer who served in the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
People
Starbuck + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Starbuck as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Starbuck: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Starbuck?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Starbuck 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Starbuck a common name?
We classify Starbuck as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Starbuck most popular?
The single biggest year for Starbuck was 1979, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Starbuck is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Starbuck in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Starbuck a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Starbuck 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 Starbuck still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Starbuck 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 Starbuck 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Starbuck?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Starbuck, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.