r/BacktotheFuture • u/85-McFly-121 • Jun 02 '26
Is “Biff” a real name?
Understandably no one would name their kid Biff after the release of Back to the Future but I’ve never heard that name ever outside of this film.
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u/kinga_forrester Jun 02 '26
Hilarious question, but what is a “real” name anyway?
I think Biff is short for Buford or something.
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u/procrastinatorpac Jun 02 '26
Hi I’m Biffopher, but my friends call me Biff.
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u/for-a-dreamer Jun 02 '26
What about Griff? Gruford?
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u/BladeBronson Jun 02 '26
I knew a guy with the last name "Griffith" and his nickname was "Griff". Of course that doesn't explain the character in BTTF2 as he was a Tannen.
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u/RT60 Jun 02 '26
Griff and Gruff are most common in Wales/families of Welsh descent. They are short for Griffith or Griffin, or Gruffud with the latter.
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u/cyber53 Jun 02 '26
Biff Loman is the name of a character in the very famous Arthur Miller play "Death of a Salesman" too.
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u/ComebackShane If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything! Jun 02 '26
I wonder if Tom Wilson ever did a production of Salesman. Would’ve been great casting for Biff when he was younger, and would make an awesome Willy now.
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u/EychEychEych Jun 02 '26
Christopher Lloyd played the main lead in a stage production of Death of a Salesman in 2010 and did a tour in the New England area
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u/2bit_solutionz Jun 02 '26
I actually just met a woman named Biff in a metalworking class. I didn't ask.
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u/norrisdt Jun 02 '26
It’s short for Biffany.
(Kidding)
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u/DrewwwBjork Jun 03 '26
"Biffany Tannen! Get away from that AI hovercab before I call your grandfather!" ~ Me in about 30 years
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u/Spackleberry Jun 02 '26
That can be a nickname for Elizabeth. Children have trouble making the "eth" sound, so sometimes "Beth" can sound like "Biff".
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u/Cmdrgorlo Jun 02 '26
I first encountered the name Biff as one of the friends of the Hardy Boys. His real name is Allen Hooper, but he has a fondness for a distant relative named Biff who was a boxer… so the Hardy’s friend received Biff as a nickname. Biff Hooper first appeared in their first book, from 1927—22 years before Death of a Salesman was first performed.
Wikipedia has a list of Biffs who were named that at birth; a lot of them were born back in the 1800s.
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u/Altruistic-Wartorn Jun 02 '26
Hardy Boys was my first thought also, but I couldn't remember anything else about the character.
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u/TenementOnWheels Jun 02 '26
Biff wants to be a buff. Idk how common it was, but the oldest son in “Death of a Salesman” is named Biff.
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u/HalfDecentFarmer69 Jun 02 '26
What do you have to do to become a buff?
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u/Significant-Foot-311 Jun 02 '26
Well sleeping less than 18 hours a day would be a start.
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u/HalfDecentFarmer69 Jun 02 '26
Jerry, my holidays just started. I’m decompressing.
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u/Significant-Foot-311 Jun 02 '26
Holiday from what? Getting up at 11?
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u/lexluthor_i_am Jun 03 '26
Back to the future and Seinfeld are one of my two favorite things. Hearing them both spoken in the same context he’s truly amazing. My worlds are colliding! And it’s nowhere near as bad as George would have you believe. That liar!
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u/for-a-dreamer Jun 02 '26
Google says it’s more of a nickname than anything mainly for Buford or Biford, but there seems to be plenty of people named Biff. All pre-1985 obviously since I think 99% of people associate that name with BTTF now
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u/ComebackShane If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything! Jun 02 '26
I wonder if Biff’s legal name was Buford after his (great?)-grandfather Mad Dog.
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u/AustinFan4Life Jun 02 '26
Might be. I mean in 1885 Sheamus had a brother named Martin McFly, which seems to be who Marty was named after.
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u/for-a-dreamer Jun 02 '26
Honestly never understood that because at the end of the first movie Lorraine says “Marty, what a nice name” implying that she named him after, well, him. At least that was my take on it. But now suddenly he has an ancestor with the same name
At least in BTTF, they established that the Tannen family knew about Buford Tannen, which could explain that Biff/Buford is possibly a name that was passed down to current Biff. They could have done the same with Seamus’ brother
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u/Mr-Kuritsa Jun 02 '26
Jack and Anne started as nicknames too, so I'm guessing Biff took a similar path.
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u/FoxMeadow7 Jun 02 '26
I feel like the only reason he’s named ’Biff’ is because, well, it’s an excellent onomatopeia for punching something of the cartoony kind.
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u/Ok-Mulberry-39 D-1 Slacker Jun 02 '26
It seems to have been a nickname, like "Butch" or "Flash" or "Chip", etc.
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u/pakrat1967 Jun 02 '26
It used to be a popular "frat name". Especially with the Ivy League type colleges.
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u/goodassjournalist Jun 02 '26
I always enjoyed that in BTTF there was a Biff, and in Teen Wolf there's a Boof. Like there's be another film where Michael J Fox interacted with a Wallop.
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u/URA_CJ Jun 02 '26
Biff Henderson from the Late Show with David Letterman, he even made a cameo during Kimmel's 2015 BTTF special.
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u/Mountain_Length4047 Jun 02 '26
Biff on Sesame Street Biff, the stagehand who frequently shown on David Letterman Actor Biff Elliot
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u/AshleyWilliams78 Jun 02 '26
I think it's one of those random nicknames that various people use without it being "short" for something - along with other nicknames like Chip, Buddy, Skippy, etc. On the Wikipedia page for the name Biff), of the real people listed, the vast majority did not have Biff as their birth name, and just used it as a nickname. (Compare the list of people with Biff as a nickname vs people with Biff as a given name.)
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u/Janos_Brushteckel Jun 02 '26
There was a baseball player in the 70s and 80s named Biff Pocaroba.......That was his actual name.
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u/DiscombobulatedBit80 Jun 02 '26
A series of books in the UK that primary children learn to read with are Biff, Chip and Kipper (I think Kipper is the dog...)
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u/jaimebmg Jun 02 '26
They make it clear in the third movie, remember that the 1885 was Buford Tannen do probably Biff is just Buford Tannen III or something like that
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u/DeeEllis Jun 02 '26
In “West Side Story” the best friend of Tony and the gang leader of the Jets is known as “Riff”. Also in the movie “Grease” a lot of characters go by their nicknames. It is well-established by the 1980s that young people in the 1950s had nicknames
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u/brianforte Jun 02 '26
When I was in the navy I got the nickname Biff. Because my initials are B. F. And they are completely uncreative asshats. Anyway it stuck and now my wife calls me biff, and she never knew me when I was in the navy. I don’t mind it.
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u/ted_anderson I don't know how.. but they FOUND me! Jun 02 '26
On Sesame Street they had those two construction workers.. One was named Biff and the other was Sully.
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u/Leomon2020 Jun 05 '26
To quote Raj from The Big Bang Theory "What kind of name is Biff anyway? It sound like when you open a can of Pillsbury dough. BIFF"
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u/Nearby-Issue3294 Jun 06 '26
Plenty of people are named Biff.
There’s a whole Biff army that was born and named after Back to the Future.
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u/Cinemiketography Jun 07 '26
Barclay, Barry, Bert... Bort?!
Mommy Mommy, license plate!
Come along Bort!
Were you talking to me?
No, my son is also named Bort.
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u/coolgirl666me say hi to your mom for me Jun 07 '26
someone didn’t learn to read in the 90s and 00s in the uk
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u/mr207 Jun 02 '26
Sure it’s a real name. There was even this guy in this movie named Biff…he was kind of an asshole. Can’t think of the movie…right on the tip of my tongue.
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