Humanverse

Jeshia vs Jesse

American parents have registered 444,920 Jesses since 1880, against 61 Jeshias. Jesse is still ahead, with 2,074 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeshia against Jesse, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeshia Jesse

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

Jesse 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 2015, when Jeshia had 14 and Jesse had 2,424.

Side by side

  Jeshia Jesse
Total US births 61444,920
Most in one year 1410,823
Babies in 2025 62,074
Estimated living today 60333,000
Median age today 737
Peak year 20151981
Best rank 8,008th girls37th boys
Rank in 2025 13,208th184th
First recorded 20151880
Girls / boys 61 / 012,492 / 432,428

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 Jesses alive today are over 37; half the Jeshias are over 7. That is 30 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: Jeshia and Jesse.