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Arthur vs Arty

American parents have registered 551,930 Arthurs since 1880, against 158 Artys. Arthur is still ahead, with 3,847 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arthur against Arty, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arthur Arty

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

Arthur has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1982, when Arthur had 1,812 and Arty had 7.

Side by side

  Arthur Arty
Total US births 551,930158
Most in one year 10,57911
Babies in 2025 3,847under 5
Estimated living today 206,000120
Median age today 6161
Peak year 19211961
Best rank 19th boys2,538th boys
Rank in 2025 87thunranked
First recorded 18801936
Girls / boys 3,201 / 548,7290 / 158

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.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Arthur Arty
France 141,3355
England and Wales 46,79771

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Arthur and Arty.