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Beau vs Beauford

American parents have registered 66,603 Beaus since 1880, against 1,026 Beaufords. Beau is still ahead, with 5,224 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Beau against Beauford, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Beau Beauford

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 116 years in which either name was published, Beau for 71 years and Beauford for 45 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Beau Beauford
Total US births 66,6031,026
Most in one year 5,22438
Babies in 2025 5,224under 5
Estimated living today 65,000250
Median age today 872
Peak year 20251934
Best rank 60th boys1,133rd boys
Rank in 2025 60thunranked
First recorded 19321905
Girls / boys 1,011 / 65,59210 / 1,016

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Beaufords alive today are over 72; half the Beaus are over 8. That is 64 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Beau and Beauford.