Humanverse

Beckem vs Becky

American parents have registered 87,042 Beckys since 1880, against 272 Beckems. Becky is still ahead, with 36 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Beckem against Becky, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Beckem Becky

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

Becky has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Beckem had 21 and Becky had 39.

Side by side

  Beckem Becky
Total US births 27287,042
Most in one year 214,755
Babies in 2025 1436
Estimated living today 27073,000
Median age today 862
Peak year 20131959
Best rank 4,463rd boys102nd girls
Rank in 2025 6,143rd3,975th
First recorded 20081880
Girls / boys 0 / 27286,898 / 144

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 Beckys alive today are over 62; half the Beckems are over 8. That is 54 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: Beckem and Becky.