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Cliff vs Climmie

American parents have registered 9,307 Cliffs since 1880, against 721 Climmies. Cliff is still ahead, with 43 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Cliff Climmie

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

Cliff 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 1927, when Cliff had 40 and Climmie had 28.

Side by side

  Cliff Climmie
Total US births 9,307721
Most in one year 31028
Babies in 2025 43under 5
Estimated living today 6,100190
Median age today 5777
Peak year 19591918
Best rank 455th boys2,102nd girls
Rank in 2025 2,884thunranked
First recorded 18801900
Girls / boys 0 / 9,307461 / 260

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 Climmies alive today are over 77; half the Cliffs are over 57. That is 20 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: Cliff and Climmie.