Buckley
Masculine · “buck clearing”
Buckley is the buck's clearing — or the goat pasture — and the Old English bucca covered both a he-goat and a male deer.
How old is the name Buckley?
Buckley first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Buckley alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 900 people named Buckley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Buckley most popular?
Buckley peaked in 1962, reaching #1896 nationally. Today it ranks #2183, 287 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bucca leah to Buckley
The story of Buckley
Bucca and bucc named a he-goat and a stag and had merged by Middle English, which is why the modern buck covers deer, goats and rabbits alike. Buckley is a Welsh and English place name and a common Irish surname from a separate source. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
buck clearing, goat pasture
From the Old English bucca, 'he-goat', or bucc, 'male deer', and leah, 'wood' or 'clearing'. The two animal words merged early. Buckley in Flintshire and several English places carry it. The elements are ordinary and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- bucca leah
- Buckley
Related forms: Buckly · Ó Buachalla
Pronouncing Buckley
BUK-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Buckley
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 202269 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1896reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- −4.4%65 in 2025, from 68
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.
Buckley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Buckly in English — spelling variant
- Ó Buachalla in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Wisconsin, Michigan, California.
Buckleys among us
people named Buckley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 26,278 born in 2025 was named Buckley
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 Rogerio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Buckley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rogerio climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rogerio's path sketches the road Buckley is walking now.
Buckley 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 Buckley is headed
Buckley looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 46% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Buckley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Buckley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That one word covered goats and deer alike is a genuinely good etymology.
- Buck and Lee are two short forms, both with real records.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- The Irish Ó Buachalla is a separate source often conflated with it.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Buckley
Masculine · #2183 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Buckleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Buckley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Buckley in 2025?
- Buckley ranks #2183 among US boy names in 2025, with 65 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Buckley?
- About 1 in every 26,278 US boys born in 2025 was named Buckley — 65 in all.
- Will my child share the name Buckley with classmates?
- Buckley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Buckley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eastyn#2183 · Matheus#2183 · Fynn#2183 · Carsen#2183 · Lyndon#2183 · Chet#2183 · Cylas#2183 · Amaris#2183
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Buckley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Buckley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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