Stacy vs Starling
American parents have registered 186,268 Stacys since 1880, against 1,226 Starlings. Stacy is still ahead, with 140 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Stacy Starling
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 141 years in which either name was published, Stacy for 135 years and Starling for 6 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.
Side by side
| Stacy | Starling | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 186,268 | 1,226 |
| Most in one year | 10,144 | 32 |
| Babies in 2025 | 140 | 21 |
| Estimated living today | 171,000 | 640 |
| Median age today | 50 | 31 |
| Peak year | 1971 | 1920 |
| Best rank | 32nd girls | 1,457th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 1,652nd | 6,446th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 164,011 / 22,257 | 225 / 1,001 |
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 Stacys alive today are over 50; half the Starlings are over 31. That is 19 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: Stacy and Starling.