Humanverse

Jestin vs Jesus

American parents have registered 246,966 Jesuses since 1880, against 1,199 Jestins. Jesus is still ahead, with 2,084 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jestin against Jesus, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jestin Jesus

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

Jesus 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 1987, when Jestin had 43 and Jesus had 2,825.

Side by side

  Jestin Jesus
Total US births 1,199246,966
Most in one year 486,508
Babies in 2025 under 52,084
Estimated living today 1,200218,000
Median age today 2826
Peak year 20012004
Best rank 2,151st boys70th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked173rd
First recorded 19731880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,1992,685 / 244,281

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 Jestins alive today are over 28; half the Jesuses are over 26. That is 2 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: Jestin and Jesus.