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Abbott vs Abby

American parents have registered 62,036 Abbys since 1880, against 1,320 Abbotts. Abby is still ahead, with 379 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Abbott against Abby, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Abbott Abby

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 140 years in which either name was published, Abby for 132 years and Abbott for 8 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Abbott Abby
Total US births 1,32062,036
Most in one year 592,048
Babies in 2025 27379
Estimated living today 94060,000
Median age today 1126
Peak year 20162003
Best rank 2,255th boys164th girls
Rank in 2025 3,949th731st
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 24 / 1,29661,855 / 181

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 Abbys alive today are over 26; half the Abbotts are over 11. That is 15 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: Abbott and Abby.