Bowie
Masculine · Gaelic roots · “From Gaelic”
Bowie is given to both — 2,235 boys and 1,285 girls since 1880. See Bowie as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Bowie began as a Highland byname, crossed the Atlantic as a family surname, and became famous twice over — once on a frontier knife, once on a record sleeve, when a young English singer named David Jones borrowed it for the stage. It is two syllables that open wide and end soft, and it comes with Bo already attached.
How old is the name Bowie?
Bowie first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Bowie is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,200 people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bowie most popular?
Bowie peaked in 2021, reaching #951 nationally. Today it ranks #1227, 276 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Where it comes from
From Buidhe (Gaelic byname, "fair-haired") to Bowie
The story of Bowie
The name starts as description rather than identity: a Gaelic byname for a fair-haired man, hardened over generations into a surname carried by families in Scotland and, by a separate road, in Ireland. Scots-Irish migration brought it to America, where it attached itself to places and to people — among them Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo in 1836 and whose name stayed on the long fighting knife. In the 1960s the English singer David Robert Jones took Bowie as a stage surname, and that is the form most listeners know now. The move from surname to first name is recent, and it is the most recent chapter the name has: children given Bowie today are mostly still children.
Meaningscholars disagree
From Gaelic — either "yellow, fair-haired" or "victorious"
The Scottish surname Bowie is generally traced to Gaelic buidhe, "yellow" or "fair-haired", used first as a nickname for someone blond. In Ireland, Bowie also appears as an anglicization of Ó Buadhaigh, from buadhach, "victorious". Both routes are real, and a given American family line can descend from either.
How the name formed
- BuidheGaelic byname, "fair-haired"
- BowieScottish and Irish surname
- Bowiegiven name
Related forms: Buidhe · Ó Buadhaigh
Pronouncing Bowie
BOH-ee
Three pronunciations are genuinely in use in the US: BOH-ee (the singer's own), BOO-ee (the knife, and the Maryland city), and BOW-ee rhyming with "how". Whichever you choose, expect to state it.
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 2021237 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #951reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −1.8%164 in 2025, from 167
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 Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Ó Buadhaigh in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Bowies among us
people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,415 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 Neville 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: Neville climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neville'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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, six letters, one accepted spelling — no rival variants competing for it the way there are for many new surname-names.
- Bo is waiting inside it: a short form already in independent use as a given name in America.
- A documented surname with a Gaelic root, so it sits squarely in the long English-language tradition of family names used as first names.
- Recognized instantly across the English-speaking world, while staying uncommon as a first name — a child is unlikely to share it in class.
- The pronunciation is not settled. BOH-ee, BOO-ee and BOW-ee all have real backing, and your child will spend a lifetime supplying the answer before anyone guesses.
- Almost everyone will hear David Bowie first. That is a fond association for most people, but the name arrives sounding like a tribute, and will be read that way at introductions.
- In Texas and the Southwest especially, some will think of the Bowie knife and the Alamo before they think of music.
- Its use as a first name is very recent, so nearly all the Bowies alive are young. There is no established grown-up version of the name yet — your child helps make it.
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Bowie
Masculine · Gaelic roots · #1227 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 2,200 people named Bowie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bowie in 2025?
- Bowie ranks #1227 among US boy names in 2025, with 164 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bowie?
- About 1 in every 10,415 US boys born in 2025 was named Bowie — 164 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.
Demetrius#1227 · Natanael#1227 · Aziah#1227 · Mattias#1231 · Kendall#1231 · Mike#1231 · Ahmir#1231 · Kolby#1222
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bowie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bowie and another name?
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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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