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Monroe vs Montez

American parents have registered 24,360 Monroes since 1880, against 3,942 Montezes. Monroe is still ahead, with 815 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Monroe against Montez, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Monroe Montez

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 146 years in which either name was published, Monroe for 121 years and Montez for 25 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Monroe Montez
Total US births 24,3603,942
Most in one year 815110
Babies in 2025 81521
Estimated living today 13,0003,300
Median age today 931
Peak year 19211991
Best rank 289th boys1,030th boys
Rank in 2025 1,260th4,707th
First recorded 18801907
Girls / boys 7,266 / 17,094737 / 3,205

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 Montezes alive today are over 31; half the Monroes are over 9. 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: Monroe and Montez.