French beau, "beautiful, handsome" — handsome. Beau Brummell set English dress standards in the Regency and gave the word its dandy sense.
Beau ranks 60th among American boys in 2025, with 5,224 born that year. Its best year was 2025, when 5,224 babies were given the name, ranking 60th. The typical living American called Beau is about 9 years old today. It is relatively most common in Wyoming, where it accounts for 0.74% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.