Humanverse

Gregg vs Grethel

American parents have registered 36,624 Greggs since 1880, against 630 Grethels. Gregg is still ahead, with 5 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gregg against Grethel, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gregg Grethel

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 121 years in which either name was published, Gregg for 99 years and Grethel for 22 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Gregg Grethel
Total US births 36,624630
Most in one year 1,90020
Babies in 2025 55
Estimated living today 28,000310
Median age today 6214
Peak year 19621921
Best rank 167th boys1,988th girls
Rank in 2025 12,008th14,942nd
First recorded 18811904
Girls / boys 112 / 36,512630 / 0

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 Greggs alive today are over 62; half the Grethels are over 14. That is 48 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: Gregg and Grethel.