Humanverse

Torrance vs Torrey

American parents have registered 6,344 Torreys since 1880, against 4,152 Torrances. Torrey is still ahead, with 25 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Torrance against Torrey, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Torrance Torrey

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 85 years in which either name was published, Torrey for 56 years and Torrance for 29 years. The lead changed hands 26 times.

19 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Torrance Torrey
Total US births 4,1526,344
Most in one year 128340
Babies in 2025 2425
Estimated living today 3,9005,900
Median age today 3540
Peak year 19731977
Best rank 710th boys462nd boys
Rank in 2025 5,208th6,446th
First recorded 19401938
Girls / boys 562 / 3,5901,278 / 5,066

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 Torreys alive today are over 40; half the Torrances are over 35. That is 5 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: Torrance and Torrey.