Humanverse

Tomie vs Tommy

American parents have registered 181,675 Tommys since 1880, against 1,380 Tomies. Tommy is still ahead, with 455 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tomie against Tommy, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tomie Tommy

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

Tommy 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 1891, when Tomie had 7 and Tommy had 8.

Side by side

  Tomie Tommy
Total US births 1,380181,675
Most in one year 534,649
Babies in 2025 under 5455
Estimated living today 310115,000
Median age today 6361
Peak year 19191947
Best rank 1,097th boys79th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked657th
First recorded 18861880
Girls / boys 476 / 9042,942 / 178,733

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 Tomies alive today are over 63; half the Tommys are over 61. That is 2 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: Tomie and Tommy.