Humanverse

Burma vs Burton

American parents have registered 22,534 Burtons since 1880, against 931 Burmas. Burton is still ahead, with 23 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Burma against Burton, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Burma Burton

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

Burton has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1908, when Burma had 8 and Burton had 34.

Side by side

  Burma Burton
Total US births 93122,534
Most in one year 47597
Babies in 2025 under 523
Estimated living today 3407,000
Median age today 7964
Peak year 19411925
Best rank 1,065th girls222nd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked4,396th
First recorded 18961880
Girls / boys 931 / 048 / 22,486

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 Burmas alive today are over 79; half the Burtons are over 64. That is 15 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: Burma and Burton.