Humanverse

Beck vs Beckem

American parents have registered 4,109 Becks since 1880, against 272 Beckems. Beck is still ahead, with 271 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Beck against Beckem, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Beck Beckem

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

Beck has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1957 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Beck had 114 and Beckem had 21.

Side by side

  Beck Beckem
Total US births 4,109272
Most in one year 27121
Babies in 2025 27114
Estimated living today 4,100270
Median age today 108
Peak year 20252013
Best rank 913th boys4,463rd boys
Rank in 2025 913th6,143rd
First recorded 19572008
Girls / boys 126 / 3,9830 / 272

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 Becks alive today are over 10; half the Beckems are over 8. That is 2 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: Beck and Beckem.