Arch vs Archer

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Arch Archer

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, Arch for 93 years and Archer for 47 years. The lead changed hands 17 times.

• 1880–1962 Arch ahead, apart from 2 short spells
• 1969–1971 Archer ahead
• 1972–1979 Arch ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1991–2025 Archer ahead

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

Side by side

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 Archers are over 5. That is 56 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Arch Kentucky (10.9×), Tennessee (6.6×), Missouri (4.5×)
• Archer Utah (3.1×), Idaho (3.0×), Colorado (2.2×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

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