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Pax vs Paxten

American parents have registered 1,098 Paxes since 1880, against 335 Paxtens. Pax is still ahead, with 72 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Pax Paxten

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 21 years in which either name was published, Pax for 20 years and Paxten for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Pax Paxten
Total US births 1,098335
Most in one year 8428
Babies in 2025 729
Estimated living today 1,100330
Median age today 710
Peak year 20242018
Best rank 1,957th boys4,094th boys
Rank in 2025 2,056th8,243rd
First recorded 19742007
Girls / boys 54 / 1,04431 / 304

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 Paxtens alive today are over 10; half the Paxes are over 7. That is 3 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: Pax and Paxten.