Humanverse

Rook vs Roosevelt

American parents have registered 38,024 Roosevelts since 1880, against 750 Rooks. But in 2025 it was Rook that was commoner, 88 babies to 36.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rook against Roosevelt, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rook Roosevelt

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 131 years in which either name was published, Roosevelt for 127 years and Rook for 4 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Rook Roosevelt
Total US births 75038,024
Most in one year 881,225
Babies in 2025 8836
Estimated living today 75016,000
Median age today 664
Peak year 20251933
Best rank 1,959th boys132nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,959th4,249th
First recorded 20011895
Girls / boys 35 / 715363 / 37,661

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 Roosevelts alive today are over 64; half the Rooks are over 6. That is 58 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: Rook and Roosevelt.