Humanverse

Orrin vs Orris

American parents have registered 5,985 Orrins since 1880, against 988 Orrises. Orrin is still ahead, with 62 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Orrin against Orris, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Orrin Orris

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, Orrin for 145 years and Orris for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Orrin Orris
Total US births 5,985988
Most in one year 9851
Babies in 2025 62under 5
Estimated living today 3,300120
Median age today 3277
Peak year 19151918
Best rank 572nd boys996th boys
Rank in 2025 2,258thunranked
First recorded 18801894
Girls / boys 0 / 5,98549 / 939

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 Orrises alive today are over 77; half the Orrins are over 32. That is 45 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: Orrin and Orris.