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Tate vs Tatem

American parents have registered 28,955 Tates since 1880, against 669 Tatems. Tate is still ahead, with 2,022 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tate against Tatem, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tate Tatem

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

Tate has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Tate had 746 and Tatem had 42.

Side by side

  Tate Tatem
Total US births 28,955669
Most in one year 2,02242
Babies in 2025 2,02223
Estimated living today 28,000660
Median age today 1215
Peak year 20252006
Best rank 193rd boys4,685th girls
Rank in 2025 193rd13,208th
First recorded 19121997
Girls / boys 1,555 / 27,400359 / 310

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 Tatems alive today are over 15; half the Tates are over 12. That is 3 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: Tate and Tatem.