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Mosby vs Moses

American parents have registered 43,342 Moseses since 1880, against 14 Mosbys. Moses is still ahead, with 589 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mosby against Moses, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mosby Moses

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

Moses 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 1920, when Mosby had 9 and Moses had 383.

Side by side

  Mosby Moses
Total US births 1443,342
Most in one year 9669
Babies in 2025 under 5589
Estimated living today 529,000
Median age today 925
Peak year 19202016
Best rank 2,967th boys460th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked515th
First recorded 19201880
Girls / boys 0 / 1451 / 43,291

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 Moseses alive today are over 25; half the Mosbys are over 9. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Mosby and Moses.