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Rose vs Rosser

American parents have registered 502,704 Roses since 1880, against 148 Rossers. Rose is still ahead, with 2,386 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rose against Rosser, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rose Rosser

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

Rose 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 1901, when Rose had 2,220 and Rosser had 5.

Side by side

  Rose Rosser
Total US births 502,704148
Most in one year 9,8219
Babies in 2025 2,386under 5
Estimated living today 197,00020
Median age today 6678
Peak year 19171917
Best rank 16th girls2,732nd boys
Rank in 2025 114thunranked
First recorded 18801901
Girls / boys 500,586 / 2,1180 / 148

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 Rossers alive today are over 78; half the Roses are over 66. That is 12 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: Rose and Rosser.