Humanverse

Burnest vs Burt

American parents have registered 6,555 Burts since 1880, against 34 Burnests. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Burnest against Burt, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Burnest Burt

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

Burt has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2017. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1921, when Burnest had 9 and Burt had 78.

Side by side

  Burnest Burt
Total US births 346,555
Most in one year 9152
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 83,000
Median age today 7963
Peak year 19211956
Best rank 2,986th boys615th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19211880
Girls / boys 0 / 340 / 6,555

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 Burnests alive today are over 79; half the Burts are over 63. That is 16 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: Burnest and Burt.