Humanverse

Osa vs Osama

American parents have registered 979 Osamas since 1880, against 770 Osas. Osama is still ahead, with 18 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Osa against Osama, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Osa Osama

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 113 years in which either name was published, Osa for 61 years and Osama for 52 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Osa Osama
Total US births 770979
Most in one year 2865
Babies in 2025 918
Estimated living today 90950
Median age today 1429
Peak year 18921999
Best rank 616th girls1,642nd boys
Rank in 2025 10,107th5,208th
First recorded 18801968
Girls / boys 683 / 870 / 979

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 Osamas alive today are over 29; half the Osas are over 14. That is 15 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

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