Humanverse

Beth vs Betsabe

American parents have registered 159,755 Beths since 1880, against 1,117 Betsabes. Beth is still ahead, with 45 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Beth against Betsabe, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Beth Betsabe

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 142 years in which either name was published, Beth for 138 years and Betsabe for 4 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Beth Betsabe
Total US births 159,7551,117
Most in one year 6,73160
Babies in 2025 4545
Estimated living today 132,0001,100
Median age today 6016
Peak year 19612004
Best rank 65th girls2,711th girls
Rank in 2025 3,389th3,389th
First recorded 18841979
Girls / boys 159,430 / 3251,117 / 0

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 Beths alive today are over 60; half the Betsabes are over 16. That is 44 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: Beth and Betsabe.