Humanverse

Gauge vs Gautam

American parents have registered 4,821 Gauges since 1880, against 712 Gautams. Gauge is still ahead, with 26 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gauge against Gautam, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gauge Gautam

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 53 years in which either name was published, Gauge for 34 years and Gautam for 19 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Gauge Gautam
Total US births 4,821712
Most in one year 32728
Babies in 2025 2610
Estimated living today 4,800690
Median age today 1520
Peak year 20092008
Best rank 722nd boys3,744th boys
Rank in 2025 4,050th7,679th
First recorded 19901972
Girls / boys 0 / 4,8210 / 712

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 Gautams alive today are over 20; half the Gauges are over 15. That is 5 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: Gauge and Gautam.