Humanverse

Ashe vs Ashton

American parents have registered 107,927 Ashtons since 1880, against 548 Ashes. Ashton is still ahead, with 1,886 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ashe against Ashton, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ashe Ashton

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

Ashton has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Ashe had 45 and Ashton had 2,682.

Side by side

  Ashe Ashton
Total US births 548107,927
Most in one year 455,847
Babies in 2025 201,886
Estimated living today 540106,000
Median age today 717
Peak year 20192004
Best rank 3,899th boys76th boys
Rank in 2025 10,695th197th
First recorded 19931881
Girls / boys 206 / 34219,660 / 88,267

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 Ashtons alive today are over 17; half the Ashes are over 7. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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