Humanverse

Boe vs Boedy

American parents have registered 1,101 Boes since 1880, against 74 Boedys. Boe is still ahead, with 35 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Boe against Boedy, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Boe Boedy

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

Boe has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1971 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2007, when Boe had 20 and Boedy had 13.

Side by side

  Boe Boedy
Total US births 1,10174
Most in one year 4213
Babies in 2025 357
Estimated living today 1,10070
Median age today 1513
Peak year 20152007
Best rank 2,919th boys6,262nd boys
Rank in 2025 3,314th9,714th
First recorded 19712007
Girls / boys 22 / 1,0790 / 74

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 Boes alive today are over 15; half the Boedys are over 13. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Boe and Boedy.