Humanverse

China vs Chip

American parents have registered 4,618 Chinas since 1880, against 3,493 Chips. But in 2025 it was Chip that was commoner, 24 babies to 8.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: China against Chip, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

China Chip

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 119 years in which either name was published, China for 75 years and Chip for 44 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  China Chip
Total US births 4,6183,493
Most in one year 245171
Babies in 2025 824
Estimated living today 4,2002,900
Median age today 3158
Peak year 19921962
Best rank 816th girls593rd boys
Rank in 2025 10,917th4,249th
First recorded 18851942
Girls / boys 4,608 / 100 / 3,493

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 Chips alive today are over 58; half the Chinas are over 31. That is 27 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: China and Chip.