Humanverse

Jessie vs Jesusa

American parents have registered 281,367 Jessies since 1880, against 1,897 Jesusas. Jessie is still ahead, with 456 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jessie Jesusa

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

Jessie 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 1950, when Jessie had 1,957 and Jesusa had 36.

Side by side

  Jessie Jesusa
Total US births 281,3671,897
Most in one year 5,00355
Babies in 2025 456under 5
Estimated living today 115,000710
Median age today 4370
Peak year 19181924
Best rank 75th girls1,046th girls
Rank in 2025 823rdunranked
First recorded 18801896
Girls / boys 170,036 / 111,3311,897 / 0

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 Jesusas alive today are over 70; half the Jessies are over 43. That is 27 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: Jessie and Jesusa.