Humanverse

Blake vs Blanch

American parents have registered 206,623 Blakes since 1880, against 6,450 Blanches. Blake is still ahead, with 2,115 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Blake Blanch

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 146 years in which either name was published, Blake for 83 years and Blanch for 63 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Blake Blanch
Total US births 206,6236,450
Most in one year 6,450181
Babies in 2025 2,115under 5
Estimated living today 199,000770
Median age today 2278
Peak year 20121924
Best rank 71st boys537th girls
Rank in 2025 316thunranked
First recorded 18831880
Girls / boys 20,065 / 186,5586,420 / 30

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 Blanches alive today are over 78; half the Blakes are over 22. That is 56 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: Blake and Blanch.