Bambi
Feminine · “little girl”
The original Bambi is not a children's story. Felix Salten's 1923 novel is a bleak Austrian book about a hunted animal in a hostile forest, widely read at the time as being about the position of Jews in Europe, and it was banned and burned in Germany in 1936.
How old is the name Bambi?
Bambi first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Bambi alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 4,800 people named Bambi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bambi most popular?
Bambi peaked in 1979, reaching #562 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,984 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bambina to Bambi
The story of Bambi
Felix Salten, a Hungarian-born Viennese writer, published Bambi: A Life in the Woods in 1923; Whittaker Chambers translated it into English in 1928 and it became a bestseller in America. Salten was Jewish, and the book's account of a creature hunted in its own home was read politically from the start; the Nazi regime banned it in 1936. The 1942 Disney adaptation rewrote it for children and made the name internationally famous, and American use as a woman's name follows the film rather than the novel. Bambi's best year in United States records is 1979.
Meaning
little girl, small child
From Italian bambina, a little girl, or bambino, a little boy, itself from a nursery word for a small child. Salten chose the name for his deer from the Italian. The English use of Bambi as a woman's name derives entirely from the book and its 1942 adaptation rather than from Italian naming, where Bambi is not a given name.
How the name formed
- bambina
- Bambi
Related forms: Bambina · Bambi
Pronouncing Bambi
BAM-bee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Identical in English and Italian, with no adaptation needed.
Nicknames for Bambi
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 1979327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #562reached in 1979
- Change vs 2024
- +88.9%17 in 2025, from 9
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bambi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bambina in Italian — related form
- Bambi in German — same name
Bambis among us
people named Bambi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Bambi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Randy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bambi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Randy climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Randy's path sketches the road Bambi is walking now.
Bambi sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Bambi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bambi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented literary origin with a known author and a known year.
- Short, warm and instantly recognizable everywhere.
- A settled Italian meaning that can be given in two words.
- The animated film is the first association for nearly everyone.
- In Italian it is a nursery word rather than a name.
- It reads as a name of the 1960s and 1970s in American ears.
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What they receive
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Bambi
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bambis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,800 people named Bambi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bambi in 2025?
- Bambi ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bambi?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Bambi — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bambi with classmates?
- Bambi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bambi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bambi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bambi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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