Humanverse

Waseem vs Wash

American parents have registered 1,196 Washes since 1880, against 794 Waseems. But in 2025 it was Waseem that was commoner, 19 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Waseem against Wash, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Waseem Wash

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 128 years in which either name was published, Wash for 82 years and Waseem for 46 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Waseem Wash
Total US births 7941,196
Most in one year 3531
Babies in 2025 19under 5
Estimated living today 780150
Median age today 1776
Peak year 20201921
Best rank 3,202nd boys1,329th boys
Rank in 2025 5,045thunranked
First recorded 19791880
Girls / boys 0 / 7940 / 1,196

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 Washes alive today are over 76; half the Waseems are over 17. That is 59 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: Waseem and Wash.