Boyd
Masculine · “yellow”
Boyd is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 27,680 boys against 65 girls since 1880.
Boyd is yellow. The Gaelic buidhe described fair or blond hair, and it became a Scottish clan name held on the island of Bute and the Ayrshire coast.
How old is the name Boyd?
Boyd was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Boyd alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 12,000 people named Boyd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Boyd most popular?
Boyd peaked in 1899, reaching #228 nationally. Today it ranks #1959, 1,731 places below that high. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From buidhe to Boyd
The story of Boyd
Clan Boyd held lands in Ayrshire and rose to be earls of Kilmarnock, and their name descends either from a fair-haired ancestor or from Bute. Scottish emigration carried the surname widely, and it crossed into American given-name use in the nineteenth century, peaking around 1918 alongside a broader fashion for Scottish surname-names.
Meaningscholars disagree
yellow, fair-haired
The usual reading is the Gaelic buidhe, 'yellow' or 'fair', used as a descriptive byname. A competing account derives the surname from the island of Bute, whose own name may be Norse or Gaelic. The buidhe reading is the commoner and better supported.
How the name formed
- buidhe
- Boyd
Related forms: Buidhe · Boyde
Pronouncing Boyd
BOYD
One syllable, rhyming with 'void'. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Boyd
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1924459 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #228reached in 1899
- Change vs 2022
- −27.1%78 in 2025, from 107
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.
Boyd in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Buidhe in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Boyde in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Iowa, Indiana.
Boyds among us
people named Boyd are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 21,898 born in 2025 was named Boyd
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Boyd 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 Boyd is headed
Boyd is easing off slowly — about 22% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Boyd beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Boyd in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Scottish clan and earldom stand behind it.
- The fair-haired meaning is concrete and easy to picture.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- The origin is split between a descriptive word and an island name.
- It reads as a surname to many people.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Boyd
Masculine · #1959 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Boyds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,000 people named Boyd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Boyd in 2025?
- Boyd ranks #1959 among US boy names in 2025, with 78 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Boyd?
- About 1 in every 21,898 US boys born in 2025 was named Boyd — 78 in all.
- Will my child share the name Boyd with classmates?
- Boyd will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Boyd
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cyaire#1959 · Jaxtyn#1959 · Cross#1959 · Giovanny#1959 · Xayden#1959 · Lior#1959 · Dan#1959 · Greysen#1959
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Boyd? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Boyd and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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