Humanverse

Tom vs Tomica

American parents have registered 140,370 Toms since 1880, against 574 Tomicas. Tom is still ahead, with 65 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tom against Tomica, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tom Tomica

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

Tom has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1977, when Tom had 285 and Tomica had 60.

Side by side

  Tom Tomica
Total US births 140,370574
Most in one year 5,08060
Babies in 2025 65under 5
Estimated living today 66,000550
Median age today 6548
Peak year 19591977
Best rank 82nd boys1,717th girls
Rank in 2025 2,183rdunranked
First recorded 18801969
Girls / boys 614 / 139,756574 / 0

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 Toms alive today are over 65; half the Tomicas are over 48. That is 17 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: Tom and Tomica.