Humanverse

Brooke vs Brownie

American parents have registered 200,521 Brookes since 1880, against 1,231 Brownies. Brooke is still ahead, with 972 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Brooke Brownie

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 126 years in which either name was published, Brooke for 87 years and Brownie for 39 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Brooke Brownie
Total US births 200,5211,231
Most in one year 6,74953
Babies in 2025 972under 5
Estimated living today 196,000160
Median age today 2881
Peak year 19961923
Best rank 45th girls1,388th girls
Rank in 2025 313thunranked
First recorded 19141892
Girls / boys 198,491 / 2,030727 / 504

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 Brownies alive today are over 81; half the Brookes are over 28. That is 53 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: Brooke and Brownie.