Humanverse

Banks vs Banner

American parents have registered 6,970 Bankses since 1880, against 834 Banners. Banks is still ahead, with 1,188 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Banks against Banner, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Banks Banner

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 88 years in which either name was published, Banks for 85 years and Banner for 3 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Banks Banner
Total US births 6,970834
Most in one year 1,18874
Babies in 2025 1,18867
Estimated living today 6,500780
Median age today 36
Peak year 20252023
Best rank 310th boys2,147th boys
Rank in 2025 310th2,145th
First recorded 18831916
Girls / boys 511 / 6,45935 / 799

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 Banners alive today are over 6; half the Bankses are over 3. That is 3 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: Banks and Banner.