Humanverse

Bascom vs Basya

American parents have registered 1,052 Basyas since 1880, against 731 Bascoms. Basya is still ahead, with 44 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bascom against Basya, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bascom Basya

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 112 years in which either name was published, Bascom for 62 years and Basya for 50 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Bascom Basya
Total US births 7311,052
Most in one year 2844
Babies in 2025 under 544
Estimated living today 1001,000
Median age today 7816
Peak year 19162024
Best rank 1,265th boys3,516th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,459th
First recorded 18821962
Girls / boys 0 / 7311,052 / 0

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 Bascoms alive today are over 78; half the Basyas are over 16. That is 62 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: Bascom and Basya.