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Pinkie vs Pinkney

American parents have registered 3,892 Pinkies since 1880, against 531 Pinkneys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Pinkie Pinkney

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

Pinkie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 1992. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1881, when Pinkie had 17 and Pinkney had 9.

Side by side

  Pinkie Pinkney
Total US births 3,892531
Most in one year 9417
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 77060
Median age today 7477
Peak year 19201916
Best rank 746th girls1,771st boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 3,881 / 110 / 531

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 Pinkneys alive today are over 77; half the Pinkies are over 74. That is 3 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: Pinkie and Pinkney.