Bowie
Bowie is given to both girls and boys: 117 girls and 164 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,736 among girls’ names and #1,228 among boys’, #1,769 among all names counting both); 3,520 Americans have been recorded with it since 1920 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,490 Americans named Bowie and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 4 and 9.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bowie by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Bowie?
#1,228 among boys’ names, 2025
Bowie rose from #2,387 in 2015 to #1,228 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 28.2 to 96.0 per million.
375 babies in 2021, the peak
Bowie peaked in 2021, when 375 babies were given it (237 boys, #952 among boys’ names). The 281 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 75% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 117 | #1,736 | 164 | #1,228 |
| 2024 | 98 | #1,999 | 167 | #1,212 |
| 2023 | 126 | #1,646 | 194 | #1,098 |
| 2022 | 110 | #1,847 | 198 | #1,093 |
| 2021 | 138 | #1,527 | 237 | #952 |
| 2020 | 114 | #1,753 | 176 | #1,119 |
| 2019 | 108 | #1,866 | 159 | #1,203 |
| 2018 | 113 | #1,801 | 210 | #987 |
| 2017 | 85 | #2,226 | 156 | #1,193 |
| 2016 | 76 | #2,427 | 134 | #1,330 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 43 | #3,607 | 54 | #2,387 |
| 2014 | 30 | #4,673 | 59 | #2,257 |
| 2013 | 43 | #3,583 | 26 | #3,872 |
| 2012 | 21 | #6,147 | 24 | #4,141 |
| 2011 | 10 | #10,521 | 30 | #3,520 |
| 2010 | 16 | #7,587 | 44 | #2,735 |
| 2009 | 14 | #8,519 | 19 | #4,943 |
| 2008 | 9 | #11,745 | 25 | #4,047 |
| 2007 | 9 | #11,778 | 18 | #5,019 |
| 2006 | 5 | #17,551 | 21 | #4,372 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 13 | #5,906 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 9 | #7,591 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 9 | #7,303 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 7 | #8,553 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 6 | #9,392 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 6 | #9,203 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 7 | #7,644 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 5 | #9,155 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 7 | #7,061 | |
| 1988 | under 5 | 5 | #7,394 | |
| 1987 | under 5 | 8 | #5,013 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 5 | #6,833 | |
| 1984 | under 5 | 6 | #5,641 | |
| 1982 | under 5 | 7 | #5,076 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 7 | #4,603 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 8 | #3,984 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,369 |
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 Bowie a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,520 Americans recorded as Bowie, 37% are girls and 63% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bowie: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bowie, and how old are they?
3,490 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,520 Americans ever recorded as Bowie. The median Bowie alive today is 6 years old; half are between 4 and 9.
The 2020 Census counted 1,741 people named Bowie (607 women and girls, 1,134 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,735 born in the U.S. The Census count matches that prediction to within 1%.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 14 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 41 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 318 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,110 |
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 Bowie born?
The states with the most babies named Bowie are California, Texas and Ohio, with 48% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 39 | #936 | 1.7× |
| Texas | 20 | #1,491 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 19 | #863 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 18 | #1,068 | 0.4× |
| Utah | 17 | #517 | 2.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 12 | #1,120 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 12 | #1,019 | 1.2× |
| Arizona | 6 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 5 | #1,804 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,315 | 0.5× |
Where Bowie is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bowie is most over-represented in Utah: since 1920 it was given 2.0 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 Bowie 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 3,701 babies since 1880, Bowie is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 281 of their 287 babies (98%), 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 Bowie
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 Bowie and names like it
- Compare Bowie and BoweBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBowie peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bowie since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Bowie.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bowie alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.