Humanverse

Kimball vs Kimber

American parents have registered 11,666 Kimbers since 1880, against 2,148 Kimballs. Kimber is still ahead, with 293 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kimball against Kimber, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kimball Kimber

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 107 years in which either name was published, Kimber for 72 years and Kimball for 35 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Kimball Kimber
Total US births 2,14811,666
Most in one year 66524
Babies in 2025 6293
Estimated living today 1,60011,000
Median age today 5013
Peak year 19542016
Best rank 908th boys592nd girls
Rank in 2025 10,695th936th
First recorded 19141914
Girls / boys 140 / 2,00811,215 / 451

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 Kimballs alive today are over 50; half the Kimbers are over 13. 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: Kimball and Kimber.