Bao
Bao was given to 10 boys in 2025, #7,736 among boys’ names; 1,430 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,390 Americans named Bao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 25 and 40.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Bao?
#7,736 among boys’ names, 2025
Bao fell from #4,415 in 2015 to #7,736 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 11.5 to 5.9 per million.
72 babies in 1990, the peak
Bao peaked in 1990, when 72 babies were given it (26 boys, #2,552 among boys’ names). The 10 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 10 | #7,736 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 13 | #6,505 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 10 | #7,798 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 5 | #12,574 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 11 | #7,140 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 6 | #10,752 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 12 | #6,818 | |
| 2018 | under 5 | 10 | #7,680 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 11 | #7,150 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 18 | #5,148 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | under 5 | 22 | #4,415 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 15 | #5,761 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 18 | #4,995 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 16 | #5,499 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 21 | #4,520 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 15 | #5,760 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 20 | #4,764 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 12 | #6,796 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 14 | #5,937 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 8 | #8,806 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 11 | #6,686 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 15 | #5,267 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 17 | #4,625 | |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,275 | 11 | #6,124 |
| 2001 | 7 | #12,243 | 15 | #4,908 |
| 2000 | 7 | #11,947 | 17 | #4,404 |
| 1999 | 6 | #12,887 | 16 | #4,356 |
| 1998 | 16 | #6,100 | 13 | #4,893 |
| 1997 | 8 | #9,913 | 20 | #3,455 |
| 1996 | 16 | #5,796 | 16 | #4,023 |
| 1995 | 25 | #4,106 | 27 | #2,684 |
| 1994 | 33 | #3,371 | 30 | #2,508 |
| 1993 | 29 | #3,683 | 29 | #2,512 |
| 1992 | 40 | #2,921 | 17 | #3,614 |
| 1991 | 39 | #2,937 | 30 | #2,342 |
| 1990 | 46 | #2,570 | 26 | #2,552 |
| 1989 | 33 | #3,169 | 22 | #2,789 |
| 1988 | 38 | #2,741 | 23 | #2,515 |
| 1987 | 28 | #3,258 | 25 | #2,273 |
| 1986 | 19 | #4,201 | 31 | #1,924 |
| 1985 | 31 | #2,944 | 26 | #2,118 |
| 1984 | 36 | #2,576 | 19 | #2,536 |
| 1983 | 33 | #2,664 | 27 | #1,959 |
| 1982 | 26 | #3,265 | 23 | #2,211 |
| 1981 | 32 | #2,785 | 23 | #2,207 |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,159 | 17 | #2,735 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 10 | #3,829 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 11 | #3,413 | |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,537 | 8 | #4,206 |
| 1976 | under 5 | 8 | #4,037 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Bao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,430 Americans recorded as Bao, 41% are girls and 59% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bao, and how old are they?
1,390 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,430 Americans ever recorded as Bao. The median Bao alive today is 34 years old; half are between 25 and 40.
The 2020 Census counted 7,814 people named Bao (2,560 women and girls, 5,254 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,344 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 73 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 864 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 288 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 160 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Bao born?
The states with the most babies named Bao are California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with 96% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota and Wisconsin are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 426 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| Minnesota | 83 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Wisconsin | 37 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Texas | 21 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Bao is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bao is most over-represented in California: since 1976 it was given 2.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Bao with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,482 babies since 1880, Bao is the most given (96% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Bao
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Bao and names like it
- Compare Bao and BabaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sBao peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bao since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Bao.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Bao alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with BMost given first.