Buffy
Feminine · “my God is an oath”
Buffy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,306 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
There is no f anywhere in Elizabeth, and Buffy comes from Elizabeth. That is the whole curiosity of the name: a short form that invented a consonant its parent never had, because a small child said it that way and the family kept it.
How old is the name Buffy?
Buffy first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Buffy alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 3,100 people named Buffy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Buffy most popular?
Buffy peaked in 1972, reaching #529 nationally. See the whole 1972 chart.
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Buffy
The story of Buffy
Two television characters carried this name a generation apart, and they could hardly have been less alike. The first was a small girl with a doll in a family comedy of the nineteen-sixties, and the name's American peak falls a few years after that show began. The second, in the nineteen-nineties, was a teenage girl who killed vampires, and the joke of the whole series was that the name sounded harmless. Between them they have fixed the name so firmly in television that its actual origin — a nursery mangling of a very old and very serious name — is almost never mentioned.
Meaningscholars disagree
my God is an oath
Inherited from Elizabeth, whose Hebrew original is read either as an oath or as abundance. The short form carries the argument and adds a consonant.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elizabeth
- Buffy
Pronouncing Buffy
BUF-ee
Two syllables, weight at the front, the first rhyming with rough. There is nothing to explain and nothing to correct.
Nicknames for Buffy
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
- 1951
- Most girls named
- 1972319 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #529reached in 1972
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2024, from 8
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.
Buffys among us
people named Buffy are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Buffy sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It works as a full name and as a short form of Elizabeth, which gives a family two ways to use it.
- Five letters and two syllables, with nothing that has to be explained.
- Two television characters own the name in most people's minds, and neither is going anywhere.
- It reads unmistakably as a nickname, and formal settings will look for something longer.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Buffy to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Buffy
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Buffys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Buffy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Buffy in 2025?
- Buffy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Buffy with classmates?
- Buffy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Barbara#968 · Betty#1113 · Brenda#1525 · Beverly#1016 · Brittany#928 · Bonnie#396 · Brianna#222 · Bertha#4546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Buffy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Buffy 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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