Humanverse

Jackey vs Jackson

American parents have registered 297,998 Jacksons since 1880, against 726 Jackeys. Jackson is still ahead, with 6,597 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jackey Jackson

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

Jackson 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 1956, when Jackey had 31 and Jackson had 120.

Side by side

  Jackey Jackson
Total US births 726297,998
Most in one year 3112,626
Babies in 2025 under 56,597
Estimated living today 510286,000
Median age today 6314
Peak year 19562013
Best rank 1,385th boys16th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked36th
First recorded 19301880
Girls / boys 43 / 683778 / 297,220

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 Jackeys alive today are over 63; half the Jacksons are over 14. That is 49 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: Jackey and Jackson.