Humanverse

Skipper vs Skippy

American parents have registered 841 Skippers since 1880, against 219 Skippys. Skipper is still ahead, with 11 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Skipper against Skippy, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Skipper Skippy

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 55 years in which either name was published, Skipper for 52 years and Skippy for 3 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Skipper Skippy
Total US births 841219
Most in one year 3325
Babies in 2025 11under 5
Estimated living today 630130
Median age today 6073
Peak year 19621950
Best rank 1,367th boys1,464th boys
Rank in 2025 10,695thunranked
First recorded 19371933
Girls / boys 11 / 8300 / 219

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 Skippys alive today are over 73; half the Skippers are over 60. That is 13 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: Skipper and Skippy.