Bo
Masculine · Old Norse roots · “to live”
Bo is given to both — 14,984 boys and 865 girls since 1880. See Bo as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Two letters, one breath, and a long history behind it: Bo has been a standing given name in Denmark and Sweden for centuries, built from the Old Norse verb for living in a place. In the United States it arrived by a different road, as the everyday form of Beauregard, Beau and Robert, and it has been on the books here since the early twentieth century. It is on the rise now, still uncommon enough to turn a head.
How old is the name Bo?
Bo first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Bo alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 14,500 people named Bo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bo most popular?
Bo peaked in 2025, reaching #449 nationally. Today it ranks #449, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Bo appears on these lists:
- Two-letter names: the shortest in the records
- Scandinavian names, cool by design
- East and Southeast Asian names in American use
- Viking names from the sagas
- Strong-sounding names with a hard edge
- Cute and cozy names that stay small
- all guides
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From búa (Old Norse, 'to dwell') to Bo
The story of Bo
In Denmark and Sweden, Bo stands on its own and has for a very long time, descending from the Old Norse byname Bói, related to the verb búa, 'to live or dwell'. It has stayed in steady use across Scandinavia into the modern era, one of a small set of very short Nordic names that never needed a longer form behind them. In the United States the name grew up separately, as the spoken form of Beauregard, Beau and Robert, and took especially firm hold in the South and the Midwest before spreading. The two lines are unrelated in origin and identical on paper — which is why Bo can be a full name or a nickname, depending on the household.
Meaningscholars disagree
'to live, to dwell' (Old Norse), or a short form of Beau, 'handsome'
Two separate names meet at this spelling. The Scandinavian Bo comes from the Old Norse byname Bói, formed on búa, 'to live, dwell, keep a household'. The American Bo more often begins as a short form — of Beauregard or Beau, from French beau, 'handsome', or of Robert. Both are genuine; which one a family means is entirely up to them.
How the name formed
- búaOld Norse, 'to dwell'
- Bói
- Bo
Related forms: Bo · Bo · Bo · Bo · Bue · Beau
Pronouncing Bo
BOH
One syllable, rhyming with 'go'. Spelled exactly as it sounds in English, though it is occasionally heard as Beau and written that way by mistake.
Nicknames for Bo
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
- 1907
- Most boys named
- 2025698 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #449reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +10.3%698 in 2025, from 633
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.
Bo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bo in Danish — same name
- Bo in Swedish — same name
- Bo in Norwegian — same name
- Bo in Dutch — same name
- Bue in Danish — related form
- Beau in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Bos among us
people named Bo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,447 born in 2025 was named Bo
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 Eddy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eddy climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eddy's path sketches the road Bo is walking now.
Bo is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Bo is headed
Bo 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.
Bo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and two letters: easy for a child to write early, and almost impossible to mispronounce in English.
- Works either way — as a full given name, as it has been in Scandinavia for centuries, or as the short form of Beau, Beauregard, Robert, Boaz or Bowen.
- Continuously on US records since the early twentieth century, so it reads as established rather than newly coined.
- Recognized across Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch, which travels well.
- Currently climbing, while still rare enough that a Bo is unlikely to share the name in a classroom.
- Very short names invite the question 'is it short for something?' Some families head that off with a longer legal name; others are happy to answer it for life.
- In the Netherlands and Belgium, Bo is a common girls' name. In US records it leans boy, but the name is genuinely unisex abroad and some American families use it for girls too.
- Bo is also a widely used dog's name, which will come up in a few conversations — usually cheerfully.
- Paired with a one-syllable surname, the whole name can land very clipped; a longer middle name gives it somewhere to breathe.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bo
Masculine · Old Norse roots · #449 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,500 people named Bo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bo in 2025?
- Bo ranks #449 among US boy names in 2025, with 698 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bo?
- About 1 in every 2,447 US boys born in 2025 was named Bo — 698 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bo with classmates?
- Bo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yusuf#449 · Dalton#448 · Kane#451 · Prince#447 · Rome#452 · Karson#453 · Uriel#445 · Apollo#445
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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