Humanverse

Margaret vs Marquavious

American parents have registered 1,268,519 Margarets since 1880, against 712 Marquaviouses. Margaret is still ahead, with 2,436 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Margaret against Marquavious, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Margaret Marquavious

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

Margaret 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 1998, when Margaret had 2,969 and Marquavious had 58.

Side by side

  Margaret Marquavious
Total US births 1,268,519712
Most in one year 28,52158
Babies in 2025 2,4365
Estimated living today 484,000700
Median age today 6824
Peak year 19211998
Best rank 4th girls1,741st boys
Rank in 2025 112th12,008th
First recorded 18801988
Girls / boys 1,264,774 / 3,7450 / 712

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 Margarets alive today are over 68; half the Marquaviouses are over 24. That is 44 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: Margaret and Marquavious.