Humanverse

King vs Kingsten

American parents have registered 37,890 Kings since 1880, against 798 Kingstens. King is still ahead, with 786 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: King against Kingsten, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

King Kingsten

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

King 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 2008, when King had 329 and Kingsten had 22.

Side by side

  King Kingsten
Total US births 37,890798
Most in one year 2,70579
Babies in 2025 78631
Estimated living today 34,000790
Median age today 97
Peak year 20172018
Best rank 147th boys1,886th boys
Rank in 2025 405th3,583rd
First recorded 18802007
Girls / boys 40 / 37,8500 / 798

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 Kings alive today are over 9; half the Kingstens are over 7. 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: King and Kingsten.