Humanverse

Simcha vs Simpson

American parents have registered 2,236 Simchas since 1880, against 707 Simpsons. Simcha is still ahead, with 99 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Simcha against Simpson, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Simcha Simpson

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 122 years in which either name was published, Simpson for 62 years and Simcha for 60 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Simcha Simpson
Total US births 2,236707
Most in one year 9925
Babies in 2025 99under 5
Estimated living today 2,200190
Median age today 1565
Peak year 20251921
Best rank 1,728th boys1,509th boys
Rank in 2025 1,728thunranked
First recorded 19561883
Girls / boys 227 / 2,0090 / 707

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 Simpsons alive today are over 65; half the Simchas are over 15. That is 50 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: Simcha and Simpson.