Humanverse

Roberta vs Robinette

American parents have registered 172,330 Robertas since 1880, against 776 Robinettes. Roberta is still ahead, with 61 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Roberta against Robinette, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Roberta Robinette

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

Roberta has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1986, when Roberta had 290 and Robinette had 10.

Side by side

  Roberta Robinette
Total US births 172,330776
Most in one year 4,31033
Babies in 2025 61under 5
Estimated living today 93,000590
Median age today 7061
Peak year 19531963
Best rank 90th girls2,061st girls
Rank in 2025 2,778thunranked
First recorded 18801916
Girls / boys 171,548 / 782776 / 0

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 Robertas alive today are over 70; half the Robinettes are over 61. That is 9 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: Roberta and Robinette.