Humanverse

Hyman vs Hymen

American parents have registered 5,858 Hymans since 1880, against 285 Hymens. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Hyman Hymen

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

Hyman has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2014. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1913, when Hyman had 280 and Hymen had 27.

Side by side

  Hyman Hymen
Total US births 5,858285
Most in one year 37931
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 4401
Median age today 7097
Peak year 19161918
Best rank 253rd boys1,256th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801911
Girls / boys 0 / 5,8580 / 285

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 Hymens alive today are over 97; half the Hymans are over 70. That is 27 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

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Hyman and Hymen.