Humanverse

Tracey vs Traven

American parents have registered 95,203 Traceys since 1880, against 813 Travens. Tracey is still ahead, with 19 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tracey against Traven, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tracey Traven

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

Tracey has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2011, when Tracey had 39 and Traven had 32.

Side by side

  Tracey Traven
Total US births 95,203813
Most in one year 6,59943
Babies in 2025 196
Estimated living today 86,000800
Median age today 5622
Peak year 19702007
Best rank 55th girls2,765th boys
Rank in 2025 7,885th10,695th
First recorded 19151974
Girls / boys 86,515 / 8,6880 / 813

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 Traceys alive today are over 56; half the Travens are over 22. That is 34 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: Tracey and Traven.