Bj
Masculine
Bj is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 718 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Bj is a pair of initials that stopped being an abbreviation. It is two letters long, it is recorded almost entirely for boys, and what the letters stood for — if they ever stood for anything — is not in the record at all.
How old is the name Bj?
Bj first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Bj alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 700 people named Bj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bj most popular?
Bj peaked in 1982, reaching #1514 nationally. See the whole 1982 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Bj
An initial does not have to stand for anything. The most-cited example belongs to a president: his parents wanted to honor both grandfathers, whose names began with the same letter, could not choose between them, and gave him the letter by itself. He used it with a full stop for most of his life and occasionally without one, and the question of whether the stop belonged there was argued over by newspapers, librarians and style guides for decades. He himself was inconsistent. Names like this one work the same way from the other direction: the letters come first, from a parent's initials or a childhood shortening, and the expansion is either forgotten or was never there. What ends up on a birth certificate is what the family actually used.
Meaningnot established
Not established
There is nothing to report. Initials become names when a child is called by them from the start and the full names fall out of use, and a great many bearers of entries like this one were registered with the letters alone. A letter has no meaning, and two letters have no more.
Pronouncing Bj
BEE-jay
Two syllables, said as the two letters, with the stress usually on the second. Many bearers collapse it to a single syllable in speech.
Nicknames for Bj
Limited
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
- 1964
- Most boys named
- 198241 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1514reached in 1982
- Change vs 2021
- −36.4%7 in 2024, from 11
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.
Bjs among us
people named Bj are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Bj sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Two letters fit any field on any form.
- It works equally for a child of either sex, which very few names manage.
- It is impossible to misspell once it has been heard.
- Systems will read it as an abbreviation and ask what it stands for, permanently.
- Some databases reject names this short outright.
- B.J. and BJ are both written, and the stops are a lifelong minor nuisance.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Bj
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Bjs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Bj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bj in 2025?
- Bj is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Bj with classmates?
- Bj will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Brian#339 · Benjamin#11 · Brandon#261 · Bryan#336 · Bruce#536 · Billy#1068 · Bobby#1097 · Bradley#403
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bj? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bj and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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