Humanverse

Rickford vs Rickie

American parents have registered 18,237 Rickies since 1880, against 18 Rickfords. Rickie is still ahead, with 27 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rickford against Rickie, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rickford Rickie

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

Rickie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1896 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1950, when Rickford had 8 and Rickie had 423.

Side by side

  Rickford Rickie
Total US births 1818,237
Most in one year 81,055
Babies in 2025 under 527
Estimated living today 1114,000
Median age today 7264
Peak year 19501954
Best rank 2,770th boys218th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked6,446th
First recorded 19501896
Girls / boys 0 / 181,854 / 16,383

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 Rickfords alive today are over 72; half the Rickies are over 64. That is 8 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: Rickford and Rickie.