Burney
A variant of the English name Burnie, derived from Old English words meaning "dweller by the stream".
Name Census estimates that about 318 living Americans carry the first name Burney. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Burney today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Burney births was 1930 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Burney. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Burney is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Burneys were born before 1964.
People living today
318
~ 1 in 1,077,844 Americans
Peak year
1930
21 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1980 SSA rank
#4,926
Tracked since 1882
Census
Burney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 366 people with the first name Burney, which placed it at #25,756 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,756
National first-name rank
People counted
366
366 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Burney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burney is White at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Burney described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Burney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.0% · 249
- Black or African American21.3% · 78
- Two or more races4.1% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Burney
Out of the 888 babies given the name Burney since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Burney as a male name
- Ranked #6,377 in 1980
- 5 male births in 1980
- Peak: 1930 (21 births)
Burney as a female name
- Ranked #4,926 in 1919
- 5 female births in 1919
- Peak: 1919 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Burney leans strongly male. 342 people counted with this name were male (91.9%), compared with 30 female bearers (8.1%).
Popularity
Burney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Burney from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 157 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Burney by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Burney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Burneys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Burney, while Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Burney
The name Burney has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon era between the 5th and 11th centuries. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "burna," which referred to a small stream or brook. This suggests that the name may have initially been a locational surname, given to someone who lived near a small body of water.
In its earliest recorded uses, the name appeared as "Burne" or "Burney" in various medieval records and documents from England. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was William Burney, a landowner mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror after the Norman conquest of England.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Burney was primarily concentrated in the English counties of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk, where it was particularly prevalent among families of Anglo-Saxon descent. Some historical records from this period include references to individuals such as John Burney, a monk at the Cistercian abbey of Fountains in Yorkshire, who lived in the late 12th century.
As the name spread and evolved over time, it also took on variations such as Burnie, Burnett, and Burnley. One notable figure with the name was Sir James Burney, an English naval officer and explorer who served during the late 18th century. He was born in 1750 and is known for his voyages to the South Pacific, where he mapped various islands and contributed to the exploration of the region.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Frances Burney, an influential English novelist, diarist, and playwright who lived from 1752 to 1840. She is best known for her novels "Evelina" and "Cecilia," which explored the lives of young women in 18th-century English society and helped establish her reputation as one of the foremost female writers of her time.
In the field of music, Charles Burney, born in 1726, was a renowned English composer, music historian, and musicologist. He is particularly famous for his "General History of Music," a comprehensive four-volume work that chronicled the development of music from ancient times to the late 18th century.
Moving into the 19th century, Martin Burney was a British naval captain and explorer who participated in several Arctic expeditions between 1818 and 1827. He played a significant role in mapping and charting the northern regions of Canada and contributed greatly to the knowledge of Arctic geography and exploration during that era.
People
Burney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Burney as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Burney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Burney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 318 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Burney going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,077,844 US residents.
Is Burney a common name?
We classify Burney as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 888 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Burney most popular?
The single biggest year for Burney was 1930, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Burney is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Burney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 366 people with the name Burney, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,756 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Burney in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Burney?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Burney leans strongly male. 342 people counted with this name were male (91.9%), compared with 30 female bearers (8.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Burney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Burney is White at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Burney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Burney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.0% (249 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Burney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Burney a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Burney in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Burney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Burney in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Burney can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Burney?
See how many people have the name Burney on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.