Buster
Masculine · “boisterous one”
Buster is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,173 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Buster is an American word for a boisterous child, written on a certificate. It belongs with Bud, Buddy and Sonny — names that record what a household actually said rather than what it formally intended.
How old is the name Buster?
Buster was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Buster alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 2,200 people named Buster are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Buster most popular?
Buster peaked in 1909, reaching #238 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,565 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From burst to Buster
The story of Buster
Nineteenth and early twentieth-century American families used household names so consistently that they sometimes became the legal ones, and the registers carry Buster, Bud, Buddy and Sonny in real numbers as a result. Buster was also a stock name for a boisterous boy in comic strips and early film comedy, which kept it in circulation. It peaked in American records around 1929 and faded with the practice.
Meaning
boisterous one; one who breaks
From the English verb 'bust', an American variant of 'burst', with the agent ending -er. A buster was originally something remarkable or large, then a boisterous boy, and the word was used as an affectionate form of address to children long before it was used as a name.
How the name formed
- burst
- bust
- buster
- Buster
Related forms: Bustor
Pronouncing Buster
BUS-tur
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is an ordinary English word and is never mispronounced.
Nicknames for Buster
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
- 1918246 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #238reached in 1909
- Change vs 2022
- −42.9%12 in 2025, from 21
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.
Buster in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bustor in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Busters among us
people named Buster are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Buster
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
Buster 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
Buster beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Buster in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Warm, energetic and immediately friendly, with nothing to explain at introduction.
- It records a genuine and now largely forgotten American naming practice.
- The meaning is transparent to any English speaker.
- It is an ordinary English word, and 'hey buster' is a form of address rather than a name.
- It is strongly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
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Buster
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Busters 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 Buster are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Buster in 2025?
- Buster ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Buster?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Buster — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Buster with classmates?
- Buster will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Buster
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Kendal#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Buster? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Buster and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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