Bauer
Masculine · “farmer”
Bauer is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 869 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Bauer is a farmer in German — and the word is a relative of 'boor', which English borrowed from Dutch with contempt attached.
How old is the name Bauer?
Bauer first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Bauer is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Bauer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bauer most popular?
Bauer peaked in 2019, reaching #2228 nationally. Today it ranks #2480, 252 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bauen to Bauer
The story of Bauer
Bauer comes from a root meaning to dwell and build, and its Dutch cousin boer gave English 'boor' as an insult and named the Boer republics. Bauer is among the commonest German surnames. It entered American given-name use recently and appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
farmer, peasant
From the German Bauer, 'farmer' or 'peasant', from a root meaning to dwell or build — the same root as bauen, 'to build'. The Dutch boer gave English 'boor' and the South African Boers. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- bauen
- Bauer
Related forms: Bauer · Boer · Bower
Pronouncing Bauer
BOW-ur
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with 'power'. German says it the same way.
Nicknames for Bauer
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
- 1996
- Most boys named
- 201962 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2228reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +42.1%54 in 2025, from 38
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.
Bauer in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bauer in German — same name
- Boer in Dutch — related form
- Bower in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, Texas, Illinois.
Bauers among us
people named Bauer are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 31,631 born in 2025 was named Bauer
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 Daeshawn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bauer's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Daeshawn climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Daeshawn's path sketches the road Bauer is walking now.
Bauer 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
Where Bauer is headed
Bauer is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bauer beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bauer in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That 'boor' and the Boers come from the same word is a first-rate etymology.
- Bo is available as a short form with a real record.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- One television character is a strong American association.
- The literal meaning is 'peasant'.
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Bauer
Masculine · #2480 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bauers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Bauer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bauer in 2025?
- Bauer ranks #2480 among US boy names in 2025, with 54 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bauer?
- About 1 in every 31,631 US boys born in 2025 was named Bauer — 54 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bauer with classmates?
- Bauer will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bauer
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Arya#2480 · Kaeson#2480 · Demian#2480 · Marion#2480 · Florian#2480 · Niles#2480 · Hardy#2480 · Caine#2480
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bauer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bauer and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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