Humanverse

Bula vs Bulah

American parents have registered 3,027 Bulahs since 1880, against 1,034 Bulas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bula against Bulah, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bula Bulah

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 79 years in which either name was published, Bulah for 77 years and Bula for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Bula Bulah
Total US births 1,0343,027
Most in one year 43115
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 80310
Median age today 8783
Peak year 19201919
Best rank 1,152nd girls646th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18811880
Girls / boys 1,034 / 03,027 / 0

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 Bulas alive today are over 87; half the Bulahs are over 83. That is 4 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

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