Humanverse

Mahari vs Mahdi

American parents have registered 2,398 Mahdis since 1880, against 727 Maharis. Mahdi is still ahead, with 104 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mahari against Mahdi, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mahari Mahdi

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

Mahdi has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1959 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Mahari had 67 and Mahdi had 104.

Side by side

  Mahari Mahdi
Total US births 7272,398
Most in one year 67107
Babies in 2025 67104
Estimated living today 7202,400
Median age today 814
Peak year 20172024
Best rank 4,220th girls1,599th boys
Rank in 2025 4,460th1,621st
First recorded 19971959
Girls / boys 397 / 3300 / 2,398

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 Mahdis alive today are over 14; half the Maharis are over 8. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Mahari and Mahdi.