Humanverse

Kage vs Kagen

American parents have registered 1,539 Kages since 1880, against 541 Kagens. Kage is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kage against Kagen, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kage Kagen

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

Of the 37 years in which either name was published, Kage for 31 years and Kagen for 6 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Kage Kagen
Total US births 1,539541
Most in one year 8541
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 1,500530
Median age today 1419
Peak year 20092007
Best rank 1,774th boys2,868th boys
Rank in 2025 4,857thunranked
First recorded 19921987
Girls / boys 0 / 1,53917 / 524

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 Kagens alive today are over 19; half the Kages are over 14. That is 5 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: Kage and Kagen.