Bowie
Feminine · “yellow-haired”
Bowie is given to both — 1,285 girls and 2,235 boys since 1880. See Bowie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Bowie is Scots Gaelic for yellow-haired — buidhe — and the knife, the musician and the Maryland town all descend from the same surname.
How old is the name Bowie?
Bowie first appears in US birth records in 2006 — 19 years ago. The typical Bowie is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,300 people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bowie most popular?
Bowie peaked in 2021, reaching #1524 nationally. Today it ranks #1733, 209 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From buidhe to Bowie
The story of Bowie
Jim Bowie died at the Alamo in 1836 and the fighting knife bears his family name. David Jones took Bowie as a stage name in 1965, choosing it for the knife. His death in 2016 pushed the name sharply into American given-name use for both sexes, and it appears in the registers from that year.
Meaning
yellow-haired, fair
From the Scots Gaelic buidhe, 'yellow' or 'fair', a descriptive byname for hair color. The surname is documented in Scotland from the medieval period. Both the Bowie knife and the musician's stage name descend from it; the musician took the surname from the knife.
How the name formed
- buidhe
- Bowie
Related forms: Buidhe · Bowey
Pronouncing Bowie
BOH-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The knife is usually BOO-ee in American English, and the Gaelic buidhe is BOO-ee too.
Nicknames for Bowie
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
- 2006
- Most girls named
- 2021138 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1524reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- +19.4%117 in 2025, from 98
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.
Bowie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Buidhe in Gaelic — related form
- Bowey in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Utah.
Bowies among us
people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 13,737 born in 2025 was named Bowie
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 Jina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bowie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jina climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jina's path sketches the road Bowie is walking now.
Bowie 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 Bowie is headed
Bowie should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Bowie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bowie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The yellow-haired meaning is concrete and belongs to a documented Scottish tradition.
- Bo is available as a short form with a real record.
- Two clean syllables once the vowel is settled.
- The first vowel splits between the musician's BOH and the knife's BOO.
- The association with one musician is very strong.
- It reads as a surname and is thoroughly unisex.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bowie
Feminine · #1733 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bowies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bowie in 2025?
- Bowie ranks #1733 among US girl names in 2025, with 117 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bowie?
- About 1 in every 13,737 US girls born in 2025 was named Bowie — 117 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bowie with classmates?
- Bowie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bowie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Josephina#1733 · America#1733 · Jaylin#1733 · Iva#1733 · Huda#1733 · Alany#1733 · Sarina#1733 · Mei#1733
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bowie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bowie and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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