Tilden vs Tilford
American parents have registered 1,441 Tildens since 1880, against 640 Tilfords. Tilden is still ahead, with 47 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Tilden Tilford
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 112 years in which either name was published, Tilden for 77 years and Tilford for 35 years. The lead changed hands 30 times.
- 1884–1911 Tilden ahead
- 1917–1925 Tilford ahead
- 1926–1928 Tilden ahead
- 1929–1946 Tilford ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1949–1951 Tilden ahead
- 1952–1955 Tilford ahead
- 1956–2025 Tilden ahead, apart from 4 short spells
18 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Tilden | Tilford | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,441 | 640 |
| Most in one year | 50 | 29 |
| Babies in 2025 | 47 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 1,000 | 190 |
| Median age today | 14 | 70 |
| Peak year | 2025 | 1922 |
| Best rank | 2,991st boys | 1,367th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,991st | unranked |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1883 |
| Girls / boys | 96 / 1,345 | 0 / 640 |
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 Tilfords alive today are over 70; half the Tildens are over 14. That is 56 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Tilden Texas (9.6×), California (2.6×)
- Tilford Kentucky (56.8×)
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: Tilden and Tilford.