Modern English informal name meaning 'friend' or 'companion,' popularized as a given name in the 20th century.
Buddy began its life as an American English colloquialism for a close friend or companion, itself likely a childlike corruption of "brother" — the warm, fumbled syllable of a toddler who couldn't quite manage the full word. As a given name it took root in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, riding the era's affection for nicknames worn openly as proper names, a democratic impulse that gave us names like Buster and Hank alongside Buddy. The name's cultural footprint is enormous in American entertainment.
Buddy Holly, born Charles Hardin Holley, became one of rock and roll's founding architects, and his name became synonymous with youthful energy and creative daring. Buddy Rich was considered the greatest jazz drummer who ever lived. The comedian Buddy Hackett and the comic actor Buddy Ebsen — best known as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies — cemented the name's genial, unpretentious Americana quality.
The 2003 film Elf gave the name a new generation of associations through Will Ferrell's ebulliently innocent character. For much of the mid-20th century, Buddy was a genuine first name in American birth records, peaking in the 1940s and 1950s. It faded from nurseries as naming fashions shifted toward more formal choices, though it has never entirely disappeared.
Today it sits in an interesting cultural space — nostalgic and warm, carrying connotations of uncomplicated friendliness. Parents who choose it are often making a deliberate statement against fussiness, picking a name that promises their child will move through the world with easygoing charm.