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Misao vs Misha

American parents have registered 4,858 Mishas since 1880, against 337 Misaos. Misha is still ahead, with 60 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Misao against Misha, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Misao Misha

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 92 years in which either name was published, Misha for 67 years and Misao for 25 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Misao Misha
Total US births 3374,858
Most in one year 29142
Babies in 2025 under 560
Estimated living today 44,700
Median age today 9725
Peak year 19241991
Best rank 1,566th girls1,248th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,211th
First recorded 19051954
Girls / boys 337 / 04,255 / 603

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 Misaos alive today are over 97; half the Mishas are over 25. That is 72 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: Misao and Misha.