Humanverse

Jack vs Jacklynn

American parents have registered 759,677 Jacks since 1880, against 2,370 Jacklynns. Jack is still ahead, with 8,754 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jack against Jacklynn, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jack Jacklynn

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

Jack has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1989, when Jack had 1,723 and Jacklynn had 57.

Side by side

  Jack Jacklynn
Total US births 759,6772,370
Most in one year 12,88464
Babies in 2025 8,75432
Estimated living today 419,0002,200
Median age today 2326
Peak year 19272010
Best rank 16th boys2,752nd girls
Rank in 2025 15th4,352nd
First recorded 18801937
Girls / boys 2,734 / 756,9432,370 / 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 Jacklynns alive today are over 26; half the Jacks are over 23. That is 3 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: Jack and Jacklynn.