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Missouri vs Misty

American parents have registered 84,891 Mistys since 1880, against 1,602 Missouris. Misty is still ahead, with 35 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Missouri Misty

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 145 years in which either name was published, Misty for 77 years and Missouri for 68 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Missouri Misty
Total US births 1,60284,891
Most in one year 406,333
Babies in 2025 735
Estimated living today 20081,000
Median age today 6846
Peak year 18891977
Best rank 381st girls40th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932nd4,067th
First recorded 18801944
Girls / boys 1,602 / 084,654 / 237

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 Missouris alive today are over 68; half the Mistys are over 46. That is 22 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: Missouri and Misty.