Humanverse

Ahmad vs Ahmir

American parents have registered 20,366 Ahmads since 1880, against 3,819 Ahmirs. Ahmad is still ahead, with 407 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ahmad against Ahmir, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ahmad Ahmir

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Ahmad has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1950 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Ahmad had 437 and Ahmir had 276.

Side by side

  Ahmad Ahmir
Total US births 20,3663,819
Most in one year 662276
Babies in 2025 407163
Estimated living today 20,0003,800
Median age today 218
Peak year 20012022
Best rank 386th boys873rd boys
Rank in 2025 669th1,231st
First recorded 19501991
Girls / boys 18 / 20,3485 / 3,814

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Ahmads alive today are over 21; half the Ahmirs are over 8. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Ahmad and Ahmir.