Humanverse

Kim vs Kimberlin

American parents have registered 214,768 Kims since 1880, against 1,155 Kimberlins. Kim is still ahead, with 40 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kim against Kimberlin, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kim Kimberlin

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

Kim has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2008, when Kim had 71 and Kimberlin had 48.

Side by side

  Kim Kimberlin
Total US births 214,7681,155
Most in one year 13,63567
Babies in 2025 40under 5
Estimated living today 181,0001,100
Median age today 6326
Peak year 19601993
Best rank 34th girls2,045th girls
Rank in 2025 4,172ndunranked
First recorded 19121957
Girls / boys 179,817 / 34,9511,155 / 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 Kims alive today are over 63; half the Kimberlins are over 26. That is 37 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: Kim and Kimberlin.