Cooper vs Copper
American parents have registered 126,484 Coopers since 1880, against 592 Coppers. Cooper is still ahead, with 7,653 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Cooper Copper
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
Cooper has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1978, when Cooper had 21 and Copper had 6.
Side by side
| Cooper | Copper | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 126,484 | 592 |
| Most in one year | 7,653 | 54 |
| Babies in 2025 | 7,653 | 54 |
| Estimated living today | 125,000 | 590 |
| Median age today | 11 | 7 |
| Peak year | 2025 | 2025 |
| Best rank | 27th boys | 2,941st boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 27th | 2,941st |
| First recorded | 1882 | 1978 |
| Girls / boys | 2,782 / 123,702 | 163 / 429 |
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 Coopers alive today are over 11; half the Coppers are over 7. That is 4 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: Cooper and Copper.