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Akili vs Akiva

American parents have registered 2,932 Akivas since 1880, against 715 Akilis. Akiva is still ahead, with 121 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Akili against Akiva, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Akili Akiva

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

Of the 57 years in which either name was published, Akiva for 55 years and Akili for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Akili Akiva
Total US births 7152,932
Most in one year 38145
Babies in 2025 7121
Estimated living today 7002,900
Median age today 2413
Peak year 19992020
Best rank 3,103rd boys1,262nd boys
Rank in 2025 9,714th1,466th
First recorded 19721961
Girls / boys 254 / 461138 / 2,794

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 Akilis alive today are over 24; half the Akivas are over 13. That is 11 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: Akili and Akiva.