Humanverse

Arta vs Arther

American parents have registered 5,040 Arthers since 1880, against 638 Artas. But in 2025 it was Arta that was commoner, 11 babies to 5.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Arta Arther

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 131 years in which either name was published, Arther for 114 years and Arta for 17 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Arta Arther
Total US births 6385,040
Most in one year 17132
Babies in 2025 115
Estimated living today 2401,100
Median age today 2873
Peak year 19211922
Best rank 2,195th girls546th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked12,008th
First recorded 18841880
Girls / boys 596 / 4247 / 4,993

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 Arthers alive today are over 73; half the Artas are over 28. That is 45 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Arta Arther
England and Wales 786

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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