Burgess vs Burke
American parents have registered 4,188 Burkes since 1880, against 1,089 Burgesses. Burke is still ahead, with 49 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Burgess Burke
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 123 years in which either name was published, Burke for 107 years and Burgess for 16 years. The lead changed hands 22 times.
17 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Burgess | Burke | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,089 | 4,188 |
| Most in one year | 28 | 79 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 49 |
| Estimated living today | 400 | 3,200 |
| Median age today | 63 | 26 |
| Peak year | 1922 | 2013 |
| Best rank | 1,396th boys | 1,827th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 2,641st |
| First recorded | 1884 | 1881 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 1,089 | 70 / 4,118 |
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 Burgesses alive today are over 63; half the Burkes are over 26. That is 37 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: Burgess and Burke.