Humanverse

Beck vs Beckey

American parents have registered 4,109 Becks since 1880, against 552 Beckeys. Beck is still ahead, with 271 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Beck against Beckey, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Beck Beckey

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 83 years in which either name was published, Beck for 42 years and Beckey for 41 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Beck Beckey
Total US births 4,109552
Most in one year 27129
Babies in 2025 271under 5
Estimated living today 4,100460
Median age today 1063
Peak year 20251962
Best rank 913th boys2,210th girls
Rank in 2025 913thunranked
First recorded 19571937
Girls / boys 126 / 3,983552 / 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 Beckeys alive today are over 63; half the Becks are over 10. That is 53 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: Beck and Beckey.