Humanverse

Jamarion vs James

American parents have registered 5,274,520 Jameses since 1880, against 7,632 Jamarions. James is still ahead, with 12,004 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jamarion against James, 1880 to 2025 0 25k 50k 75k 100k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jamarion James

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

James 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 2005, when Jamarion had 640 and James had 16,166.

Side by side

  Jamarion James
Total US births 7,6325,274,520
Most in one year 64095,024
Babies in 2025 9012,004
Estimated living today 7,5002.9 million
Median age today 1658
Peak year 20051947
Best rank 418th boys1st boys
Rank in 2025 1,778th6th
First recorded 19851880
Girls / boys 0 / 7,63223,882 / 5,250,638

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 Jameses alive today are over 58; half the Jamarions are over 16. That is 42 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: Jamarion and James.