Bulah
Bulah was last recorded in 1963, when 7 babies were given it; 3,027 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bulah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Bulah?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,354, in 1963; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
115 babies in 1919, the peak
Bulah peaked in 1919, when 115 girls were given it, #646 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 7 | #5,354 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,470 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #4,959 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 7 | #4,878 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,407 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,007 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,275 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 14 | #2,821 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 16 | #2,551 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 15 | #2,632 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (78)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 19 | #2,264 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,646 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 19 | #2,164 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 25 | #1,663 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 14 | #2,414 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 29 | #1,558 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 24 | #1,708 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 28 | #1,475 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 29 | #1,411 | 0.03 |
| 1939 | 39 | #1,163 | 0.04 |
| 1938 | 24 | #1,553 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 42 | #1,101 | 0.04 |
| 1936 | 42 | #1,084 | 0.04 |
| 1935 | 48 | #996 | 0.05 |
| 1934 | 44 | #1,049 | 0.04 |
| 1933 | 46 | #1,027 | 0.05 |
| 1932 | 57 | #935 | 0.05 |
| 1931 | 46 | #1,030 | 0.04 |
| 1930 | 76 | #811 | 0.07 |
| 1929 | 95 | #722 | 0.09 |
| 1928 | 65 | #918 | 0.06 |
| 1927 | 77 | #841 | 0.06 |
| 1926 | 81 | #806 | 0.07 |
| 1925 | 95 | #759 | 0.08 |
| 1924 | 97 | #758 | 0.08 |
| 1923 | 82 | #801 | 0.07 |
| 1922 | 85 | #789 | 0.07 |
| 1921 | 89 | #775 | 0.07 |
| 1920 | 108 | #700 | 0.09 |
| 1919 | 115 | #646 | 0.10 |
| 1918 | 86 | #771 | 0.07 |
| 1917 | 82 | #762 | 0.08 |
| 1916 | 74 | #789 | 0.07 |
| 1915 | 57 | #866 | 0.06 |
| 1914 | 85 | #624 | 0.11 |
| 1913 | 51 | #739 | 0.08 |
| 1912 | 47 | #729 | 0.08 |
| 1911 | 47 | #625 | 0.11 |
| 1910 | 55 | #551 | 0.14 |
| 1909 | 42 | #594 | 0.12 |
| 1908 | 39 | #605 | 0.12 |
| 1907 | 39 | #590 | 0.12 |
| 1906 | 44 | #519 | 0.15 |
| 1905 | 52 | #474 | 0.18 |
| 1904 | 35 | #571 | 0.13 |
| 1903 | 29 | #608 | 0.11 |
| 1902 | 30 | #600 | 0.11 |
| 1901 | 33 | #532 | 0.14 |
| 1900 | 36 | #580 | 0.12 |
| 1899 | 26 | #606 | 0.11 |
| 1898 | 19 | #770 | 0.07 |
| 1897 | 18 | #740 | 0.08 |
| 1896 | 24 | #638 | 0.10 |
| 1895 | 21 | #689 | 0.09 |
| 1894 | 21 | #644 | 0.09 |
| 1893 | 26 | #549 | 0.12 |
| 1892 | 22 | #594 | 0.10 |
| 1891 | 19 | #611 | 0.10 |
| 1890 | 17 | #642 | 0.09 |
| 1889 | 17 | #622 | 0.10 |
| 1888 | 13 | #728 | 0.07 |
| 1887 | 14 | #610 | 0.10 |
| 1886 | 11 | #696 | 0.08 |
| 1885 | 14 | #580 | 0.11 |
| 1884 | 6 | #943 | 0.05 |
| 1883 | 10 | #616 | 0.09 |
| 1882 | 10 | #600 | 0.09 |
| 1880 | 5 | #845 | 0.05 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Bulah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bulah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 78 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Bulah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bulah, and how old are they?
An estimated 292 Americans named Bulah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (10% of everyone recorded); the median is 84 years old and half are between 77 and 90. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 271 people named Bulah (266 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 496 born in the U.S. The Census count is 45% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
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 Bulah born?
The states with the most babies named Bulah are North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, with 40% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 198 | not ranked | 2.4× |
| Tennessee | 170 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Texas | 149 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Kentucky | 141 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| Alabama | 133 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Georgia | 124 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Mississippi | 84 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| South Carolina | 66 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Arkansas | 62 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Virginia | 59 | not ranked | 1.0× |
Where Bulah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bulah is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1910 it was given 2.7 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 girls’ 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 Bulah 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 5,424 babies since 1880, Bulah is the most given (56% 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 Bulah
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 Bulah and names like it
- Compare Bulah and BuelahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sBulah peaked in 1919.
- North Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bulah since 1910.
- The top names of 1919The year the most babies were named Bulah.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Bulah alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with BMost given first.