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Gardenia vs Garret

American parents have registered 13,252 Garrets since 1880, against 1,354 Gardenias. Garret is still ahead, with 11 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gardenia against Garret, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gardenia Garret

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 117 years in which either name was published, Garret for 107 years and Gardenia for 10 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Gardenia Garret
Total US births 1,35413,252
Most in one year 70590
Babies in 2025 711
Estimated living today 1,10012,000
Median age today 3330
Peak year 19922000
Best rank 1,965th girls420th boys
Rank in 2025 11,932nd7,194th
First recorded 19171881
Girls / boys 1,354 / 05 / 13,247

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 Gardenias alive today are over 33; half the Garrets are over 30. That is 3 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: Gardenia and Garret.