Explore the Family Name Buma

The meaning of Buma

West Frisian: from a shortened form of Buwema, a patronymic from the personal name Buwe (a derivative of Baldwin), composed with the suffix -ma ‘(one of the) men of’. It is also a habitational name from any of several estates named Buma. Compare Bouma.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Buma in the United States?

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Buma has seen a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Buma was ranked 68,782nd in terms of popularity and this dropped to 72,332nd in 2010, a change of -5.16%. However, the count of people carrying the surname Buma marginally increased from 267 to 269 during the same period, representing a small growth of 0.75%. The proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 people decreased by 10%, going from 0.1 in 2000 to 0.09 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#68,782	#72,332	-5.16%
Count	267	269	0.75%
Proportion per 100k	0.1	0.09	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Buma

When it comes to ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the surname Buma identified as White, making up 90.26% in 2000 and slightly decreasing to 89.96% in 2010. Over the same decade, there was a significant drop of -25.54% in the number of individuals identifying their ethnicity as Asian/Pacific Islander. Interestingly, while no individuals identified as Black in 2000, by 2010, 3.72% of people with the surname Buma identified as such. No changes were recorded for those identifying as Two or more races, Hispanic, or American Indian and Alaskan Native.

	2000	2010	Change
White	90.26%	89.96%	-0.33%
Asian/Pacific Islander	5.99%	4.46%	-25.54%
Black	0%	3.72%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%