Humanverse

Milburn vs Miles

American parents have registered 123,225 Mileses since 1880, against 2,234 Milburns. Miles is still ahead, with 6,085 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Milburn against Miles, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Milburn Miles

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

Miles 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 1908, when Milburn had 20 and Miles had 44.

Side by side

  Milburn Miles
Total US births 2,234123,225
Most in one year 796,655
Babies in 2025 under 56,085
Estimated living today 450112,000
Median age today 7211
Peak year 19182024
Best rank 710th boys37th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked44th
First recorded 18841880
Girls / boys 0 / 2,234357 / 122,868

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 Milburns alive today are over 72; half the Mileses are over 11. That is 61 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: Milburn and Miles.