Humanverse

Jay vs Jaymar

American parents have registered 198,132 Jays since 1880, against 568 Jaymars. Jay is still ahead, with 818 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jay against Jaymar, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jay Jaymar

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

Jay 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 2014, when Jay had 867 and Jaymar had 27.

Side by side

  Jay Jaymar
Total US births 198,132568
Most in one year 5,42927
Babies in 2025 81813
Estimated living today 140,000560
Median age today 5615
Peak year 19602014
Best rank 78th boys3,787th boys
Rank in 2025 392nd6,446th
First recorded 18801977
Girls / boys 2,584 / 195,5480 / 568

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 Jays alive today are over 56; half the Jaymars are over 15. That is 41 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: Jay and Jaymar.