Humanverse

Arther vs Artur

American parents have registered 5,040 Arthers since 1880, against 858 Arturs. But in 2025 it was Artur that was commoner, 25 babies to 5.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Arther Artur

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 146 years in which either name was published, Arther for 103 years and Artur for 43 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Arther Artur
Total US births 5,040858
Most in one year 13229
Babies in 2025 525
Estimated living today 1,100840
Median age today 7320
Peak year 19222019
Best rank 546th boys3,716th boys
Rank in 2025 12,008th4,139th
First recorded 18801964
Girls / boys 47 / 4,9930 / 858

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 Arturs are over 20. That is 53 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.

Both names abroad

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

Country Arther Artur
England and Wales 6810

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: Arther and Artur.