Beau
Feminine · “beautiful”
Beau is given to boys far more often — 65,592 boys against 1,011 girls since 1880. See Beau as a boy name
Beau is the French for handsome, and English borrowed it whole in the eighteenth century as a word for a well-dressed man before it ever became a name. The Latin behind it means pretty, and it is the same word inside beauty and belle.
How old is the name Beau?
Beau first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Beau is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Beau are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Beau most popular?
Beau peaked in 2024, reaching #2637 nationally. Today it ranks #2859, 222 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bellus to Beau
The story of Beau
English took beau in the seventeenth century as a noun for a fashionable man and then for a woman's suitor, which is the sense that survived longest. As a given name it has been used in the American South for well over a century, largely for sons, and often as a nickname that stuck. Its use for daughters is recent and belongs to the wider movement of short boys' names crossing over — Beau, Charlie, Frankie, Sawyer — and it keeps the masculine French spelling rather than switching to Belle.
Meaning
beautiful, handsome
French beau, from Latin bellus, 'pretty, charming, fine' — a diminutive form of a word meaning good. The same root gives belle, beauty, embellish and Bella. The reading is exact and undisputed. In French it is the masculine adjective and belle is the feminine, which is worth knowing when the name is used for a daughter.
How the name formed
- bellus
- beau
Related forms: Beau · Belle · Bello
Pronouncing Beau
BOH
One syllable, rhyming with go. The eau is a single French vowel and the whole cluster says one sound, which English speakers manage without difficulty because the word is already familiar.
Nicknames for Beau
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 202466 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2637reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −10.6%59 in 2025, from 66
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.
Beau in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Beau in French — same name
- Belle in French — related form
- Bello in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Beaus among us
people named Beau are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,242 born in 2025 was named Beau
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 Janeane test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Beau's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janeane climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janeane's path sketches the road Beau is walking now.
Beau 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 Beau is headed
Beau should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Beau beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Beau in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, said correctly by everyone, and easy for a small child to answer to.
- A documented French word with a clear meaning and a long English borrowing history.
- Pairs cleanly with a long surname, as short first names generally do.
- It is the masculine form in French, and a daughter will be read as a son on paper.
- Beau and Bo are both in use, and the French spelling gets simplified constantly.
- It is an adjective applied to the child, which is a claim made on their behalf.
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What they receive
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Beau
Feminine · #2859 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Beaus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Beau are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Beau in 2025?
- Beau ranks #2859 among US girl names in 2025, with 59 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Beau?
- About 1 in every 27,242 US girls born in 2025 was named Beau — 59 in all.
- Will my child share the name Beau with classmates?
- Beau will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Beau
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emilly#2859 · Pyper#2859 · Amarie#2859 · Luci#2859 · Issa#2859 · Azaliah#2859 · Malinda#2859 · Kyah#2859
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Beau? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Beau and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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