Humanverse

Tab vs Tabb

American parents have registered 1,110 Tabs since 1880, against 61 Tabbs. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tab against Tabb, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tab Tabb

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

Tab has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1953 to 2015. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1969, when Tab had 21 and Tabb had 8.

Side by side

  Tab Tabb
Total US births 1,11061
Most in one year 1209
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 89050
Median age today 6264
Peak year 19571957
Best rank 694th boys2,822nd boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19531957
Girls / boys 0 / 1,1100 / 61

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 Tabbs alive today are over 64; half the Tabs are over 62. That is 2 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: Tab and Tabb.