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Curley vs Curt

American parents have registered 16,680 Curts since 1880, against 3,124 Curleys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Curley against Curt, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Curley Curt

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 140 years in which either name was published, Curt for 93 years and Curley for 47 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Curley Curt
Total US births 3,12416,680
Most in one year 83720
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,20013,000
Median age today 6958
Peak year 19441960
Best rank 754th boys292nd boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18811880
Girls / boys 534 / 2,5900 / 16,680

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 Curleys alive today are over 69; half the Curts are over 58. That is 11 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: Curley and Curt.