Starling vs Starr
American parents have registered 10,167 Starrs since 1880, against 1,226 Starlings. Starr is still ahead, with 63 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Starling Starr
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 126 years in which either name was published, Starr for 92 years and Starling for 34 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.
Side by side
| Starling | Starr | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,226 | 10,167 |
| Most in one year | 32 | 307 |
| Babies in 2025 | 21 | 63 |
| Estimated living today | 640 | 9,200 |
| Median age today | 31 | 36 |
| Peak year | 1920 | 1997 |
| Best rank | 1,457th boys | 714th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 6,446th | 2,719th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1914 |
| Girls / boys | 225 / 1,001 | 9,843 / 324 |
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 Starrs alive today are over 36; half the Starlings are over 31. That is 5 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: Starling and Starr.