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Stokes vs Stone

American parents have registered 6,831 Stones since 1880, against 196 Stokeses. Stone is still ahead, with 275 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Stokes against Stone, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Stokes Stone

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 67 years in which either name was published, Stone for 51 years and Stokes for 16 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Stokes Stone
Total US births 1966,831
Most in one year 11288
Babies in 2025 8275
Estimated living today 906,700
Median age today 516
Peak year 19161999
Best rank 2,389th boys627th boys
Rank in 2025 8,910th915th
First recorded 18921919
Girls / boys 0 / 196155 / 6,676

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 Stones alive today are over 16; half the Stokeses are over 5. That is 11 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: Stokes and Stone.