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Grady vs Grafton

American parents have registered 53,215 Gradys since 1880, against 1,080 Graftons. Grady is still ahead, with 860 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Grady against Grafton, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Grady Grafton

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, Grady for 139 years and Grafton for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Grady Grafton
Total US births 53,2151,080
Most in one year 1,20325
Babies in 2025 8609
Estimated living today 33,000570
Median age today 1827
Peak year 20081916
Best rank 286th boys1,374th boys
Rank in 2025 373rd8,243rd
First recorded 18871886
Girls / boys 741 / 52,4740 / 1,080

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 Graftons alive today are over 27; half the Gradys are over 18. That is 9 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: Grady and Grafton.