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Arcadia vs Arch

American parents have registered 2,572 Arches since 1880, against 660 Arcadias. Arch is still ahead, with 46 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arcadia against Arch, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arcadia Arch

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 143 years in which either name was published, Arch for 102 years and Arcadia for 41 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Arcadia Arch
Total US births 6602,572
Most in one year 2861
Babies in 2025 2046
Estimated living today 620600
Median age today 1661
Peak year 20181880
Best rank 4,768th girls199th boys
Rank in 2025 5,917th2,765th
First recorded 19191880
Girls / boys 660 / 00 / 2,572

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 Arches alive today are over 61; half the Arcadias are over 16. That is 45 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: Arcadia and Arch.