Octa vs Octavius
American parents have registered 3,702 Octaviuses since 1880, against 160 Octas. Octavius is still ahead, with 72 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Octa Octavius
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 94 years in which either name was published, Octavius for 73 years and Octa for 21 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.
Side by side
| Octa | Octavius | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 160 | 3,702 |
| Most in one year | 14 | 126 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 72 |
| Estimated living today | 3 | 3,500 |
| Median age today | 84 | 29 |
| Peak year | 1915 | 1991 |
| Best rank | 2,143rd girls | 945th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 2,056th |
| First recorded | 1885 | 1911 |
| Girls / boys | 160 / 0 | 15 / 3,687 |
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 Octas alive today are over 84; half the Octaviuses are over 29. That is 55 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: Octa and Octavius.