Buford
Masculine · “beautiful ford”
Buford is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,854 boys against 110 girls since 1880.
Buford is a French place name that crossed to England with the Normans and then to America — beau ford, the beautiful crossing, though the beau may be a later prettification.
How old is the name Buford?
Buford was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Buford alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 3,000 people named Buford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Buford most popular?
Buford peaked in 1910, reaching #311 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,384 places below that high. See the whole 1910 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beau ford to Buford
The story of Buford
Beauford and Buford were English surnames of Norman origin, and Buford became a given name in the American South in the nineteenth century — the standard route by which surnames entered the register there. John Buford, the Union cavalry general who chose the ground at Gettysburg, gave it a further push. It peaked around 1890.
Meaningscholars disagree
beautiful ford
The surname Beauford or Buford is usually read as the Old French beau, 'beautiful', and the English ford, a river crossing — a hybrid typical of post-conquest place names. A competing account derives it from the Norman Beaufort. The American spelling records how it was said.
How the name formed
- beau ford
- Beauford
- Buford
Related forms: Beauford · Beaufort
Pronouncing Buford
BYOO-furd
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some Southern speakers say BOO-furd.
Nicknames for Buford
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
- 1921334 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #311reached in 1910
- Change vs 2012
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
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.
Buford in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Beauford in English — spelling variant
- Beaufort in French — related form
Bufords among us
people named Buford are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Buford
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
Buford 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
Buford beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Buford in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The beautiful-ford meaning is concrete and pleasant.
- A consequential Civil War general carries the name.
- Ford is available as a short form with real currency now.
- The first element is genuinely disputed.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth-century American South.
- The pronunciation splits between two regional readings.
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Buford
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bufords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Buford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Buford in 2025?
- Buford ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Buford?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Buford — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Buford with classmates?
- Buford will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Buford
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695 · Garnet#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Buford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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