Humanverse

Irbin vs Irby

American parents have registered 1,130 Irbys since 1880, against 116 Irbins. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Irbin against Irby, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Irbin Irby

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 85 years in which either name was published, Irby for 71 years and Irbin for 14 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Irbin Irby
Total US births 1161,130
Most in one year 1739
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 110300
Median age today 2671
Peak year 19911918
Best rank 3,462nd boys1,124th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19911896
Girls / boys 0 / 11626 / 1,104

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 Irbys alive today are over 71; half the Irbins are over 26. That is 45 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

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