Humanverse

Symantha vs Symphony

American parents have registered 3,291 Symphonys since 1880, against 602 Symanthas. Symphony is still ahead, with 145 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Symantha against Symphony, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Symantha Symphony

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 59 years in which either name was published, Symphony for 40 years and Symantha for 19 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Symantha Symphony
Total US births 6023,291
Most in one year 37184
Babies in 2025 under 5145
Estimated living today 5803,300
Median age today 3010
Peak year 20002022
Best rank 3,527th girls1,355th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,525th
First recorded 19591979
Girls / boys 602 / 03,256 / 35

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 Symanthas alive today are over 30; half the Symphonys are over 10. That is 20 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Symantha and Symphony.