Bo
Bo was given to 698 boys in 2025, #449 among boys’ names; 15,849 Americans have been recorded with it since 1907 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,300 Americans named Bo and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 6 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bo by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bo mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bo is “a male given name from the Germanic languages”
Also “a diminutive of the male given name Beauregard”
Either borrowed from modern Danish Bo or Swedish Bo, or a spelling variant of the male given name Beau.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bo?
#449 among boys’ names, 2025
Bo rose from #618 in 2015 to #449 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.23 to 0.41 per 1,000.
728 babies in 2025, the peak
Bo peaked in 2025, when 728 babies were given it (698 boys, #449 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 692 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 698 | #449 | 0.41 |
| 2024 | 692 | #452 | 0.40 |
| 2023 | 633 | #478 | 0.37 |
| 2022 | 614 | #497 | 0.35 |
| 2021 | 622 | #480 | 0.36 |
| 2020 | 525 | #540 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 493 | #566 | 0.27 |
| 2018 | 483 | #572 | 0.27 |
| 2017 | 432 | #610 | 0.23 |
| 2016 | 453 | #595 | 0.24 |
Every recorded year (96)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 434 | #618 | 0.23 |
| 2014 | 414 | #633 | 0.22 |
| 2013 | 318 | #733 | 0.17 |
| 2012 | 290 | #782 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 293 | #764 | 0.15 |
| 2010 | 256 | #834 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 289 | #784 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 262 | #834 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 286 | #767 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 268 | #775 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 259 | #764 | 0.13 |
| 2004 | 204 | #861 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 183 | #908 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 159 | #987 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 160 | #957 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 152 | #976 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 185 | #824 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 176 | #833 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 153 | #899 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 191 | #767 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 173 | #810 | 0.09 |
| 1994 | 193 | #756 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 229 | #676 | 0.12 |
| 1992 | 276 | #619 | 0.14 |
| 1991 | 282 | #603 | 0.14 |
| 1990 | 277 | #602 | 0.13 |
| 1989 | 215 | #677 | 0.11 |
| 1988 | 172 | #713 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 186 | #671 | 0.10 |
| 1986 | 174 | #685 | 0.09 |
| 1985 | 153 | #715 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 201 | #600 | 0.11 |
| 1983 | 138 | #735 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 160 | #684 | 0.09 |
| 1981 | 237 | #551 | 0.13 |
| 1980 | 232 | #568 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 101 | #866 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 73 | #1,014 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 77 | #975 | 0.05 |
| 1976 | 59 | #1,100 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 51 | #1,183 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 45 | #1,247 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 50 | #1,165 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 49 | #1,163 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 36 | #1,417 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 25 | #1,748 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 29 | #1,498 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 25 | #1,578 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 22 | #1,658 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 27 | #1,483 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 18 | #1,862 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 23 | #1,657 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 32 | #1,375 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 26 | #1,548 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 29 | #1,498 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 27 | #1,555 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 24 | #1,624 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 21 | #1,731 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 12 | #2,382 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 12 | #2,374 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 10 | #2,585 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 14 | #2,119 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 15 | #2,050 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 13 | #2,160 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 10 | #2,510 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 9 | #2,598 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 14 | #2,033 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #2,457 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 8 | #2,896 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #3,020 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 8 | #2,653 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,501 | under 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,601 | under 0.01 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,701 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 6 | #3,404 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,050 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 9 | #2,932 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #2,952 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,313 | under 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,371 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 6 | #3,916 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,245 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 6 | #3,783 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,403 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 10 | #2,567 | 0.01 |
| 1907 | 5 | #1,364 | 0.03 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bo a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 15,849 Americans recorded as Bo, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 30 girls and 698 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bo: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bo, and how old are they?
15,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 15,849 Americans ever recorded as Bo. The median Bo alive today is 15 years old; half are between 6 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 18,833 people named Bo (2,827 women and girls, 16,006 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,623 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 10 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 217 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 868 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,340 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,760 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,090 |
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 Bo born?
The states with the most babies named Bo are Texas, California and Tennessee, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 56 | #569 | 0.8× |
| California | 56 | #608 | 0.5× |
| Tennessee | 41 | #218 | 1.5× |
| Ohio | 39 | #308 | 1.1× |
| Utah | 28 | #193 | 1.6× |
| Georgia | 27 | #416 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 26 | #634 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 25 | #415 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 23 | #376 | 0.8× |
| Missouri | 23 | #292 | 1.2× |
Where Bo is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bo is most over-represented in Arkansas: since 1910 it was given 1.8 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 Bo 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 17,324 babies since 1880, Bo is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 728 of their 763 babies (95%), again the most given.
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 Bo
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 Bo and names like it
- Compare Bo and BoeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBo peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bo since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Bo: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Bo.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bo alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.