Fun Facts About the Name Bawi
- 266 babies named Bawi: U.S. records list 266 babies given the name Bawi from 1880 through 2025. Even 41 girls received the name Bawi - about 1 girl for every 5 boys.
What Does the Name Bawi Mean?
Bawi is a Korean given name taken from the native Korean word 바위 (bawi), which means "rock" or "boulder." It is not a Sino-Korean name: it belongs to the group Koreans call 순우리말 이름, names formed from ordinary Korean words rather than from Chinese characters. Under South Korea's Revised Romanization it is written Bawi; the older McCune-Reischauer system writes it Pawi.
The literal sense is simply "rock." When Korean families used such a word in a child's name, the solid, enduring image of a boulder was customarily understood as a wish for the child to be strong and long-lived. That symbolic reading is a customary interpretation added to the name, not a second or hidden etymology.
Bawi Name History & Origins
바위 belonged to the everyday speech of Korean households, not to the written Sino-Korean naming tradition that dominated official records. In the Joseon period and later, a child was usually registered under a name made of Chinese characters, while the family used a native Korean childhood name (아명) at home; words for rocks, stones, animals, and other familiar things are among those childhood names. Because these names were informal, they were often never written down, so Bawi is found chiefly as a home name or familiar nickname rather than as an entry on an old official document.
Korean childhood names of this kind also had a protective side: plain, sometimes deliberately ordinary words were thought to keep misfortune away from a young child, who would later take a formal Sino-Korean name for adult life. Bawi fits that pattern as a sturdy, unpretentious word. In modern South Korea, native Korean words are also registered directly as given names, so Bawi now appears on records as a formal personal name as well as a traditional home name.
How Popular is the Name Bawi?
Bawi has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2015. Its best rank was #3,437 in 2015.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | #12,645 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2017 | #12,927 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2016 | #14,615 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2015 | #11,024 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2013 | #14,896 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2011 | #15,123 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #9,019 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 2024 | #8,365 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2023 | #10,984 | 6 | 0.0004% |
| 2022 | #9,954 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2021 | #8,932 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 2020 | #6,011 | 14 | 0.0008% |
| 2019 | #8,287 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2018 | #4,937 | 19 | 0.0010% |
| 2017 | #6,732 | 12 | 0.0006% |
| 2016 | #4,794 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2015 | #3,437 | 32 | 0.0017% |
| 2014 | #6,026 | 14 | 0.0007% |
| 2013 | #4,999 | 18 | 0.0010% |
| 2012 | #4,552 | 21 | 0.0011% |
| 2011 | #5,692 | 15 | 0.0008% |
| 2010 | #9,808 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2009 | #11,160 | 6 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
Explore More Lists with Name Bawi
Most Popular Boy Names That Start with B
Short Boy Names That Start with B
How the Name Bawi Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You can go to great heights and equally great depths. You are emotional and fixed in your opinions. You are hospitable, sentimental, often psychic, sometimes moody. You are ruled by love and the lack of it and feel a need to be encouraged and appreciated. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Bawi's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Bawi's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.