Humanverse

Rowdy vs Rowen

American parents have registered 10,816 Rowens since 1880, against 5,055 Rowdys. Rowen is still ahead, with 772 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rowdy against Rowen, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rowdy Rowen

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 68 years in which either name was published, Rowdy for 45 years and Rowen for 23 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Rowdy Rowen
Total US births 5,05510,816
Most in one year 266892
Babies in 2025 266772
Estimated living today 4,90011,000
Median age today 147
Peak year 20242024
Best rank 922nd boys445th boys
Rank in 2025 940th486th
First recorded 19591944
Girls / boys 75 / 4,9802,647 / 8,169

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 Rowdys alive today are over 14; half the Rowens are over 7. That is 7 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: Rowdy and Rowen.