Humanverse

Jessica vs Jestin

American parents have registered 1,054,307 Jessicas since 1880, against 1,199 Jestins. Jessica is still ahead, with 424 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jessica against Jestin, 1880 to 2025 0 15k 30k 45k 60k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jessica Jestin

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

Jessica 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 2021, when Jessica had 656 and Jestin had 15.

Side by side

  Jessica Jestin
Total US births 1,054,3071,199
Most in one year 56,23548
Babies in 2025 424under 5
Estimated living today 1 million1,200
Median age today 3828
Peak year 19872001
Best rank 1st girls2,151st boys
Rank in 2025 665thunranked
First recorded 18801973
Girls / boys 1,050,729 / 3,5780 / 1,199

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 Jessicas alive today are over 38; half the Jestins are over 28. That is 10 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: Jessica and Jestin.