Humanverse

Becket vs Becky

American parents have registered 87,042 Beckys since 1880, against 589 Beckets. Becky is still ahead, with 36 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Becket against Becky, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Becket Becky

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 136 years in which either name was published, Becky for 133 years and Becket for 3 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Becket Becky
Total US births 58987,042
Most in one year 414,755
Babies in 2025 2936
Estimated living today 58073,000
Median age today 962
Peak year 20161959
Best rank 2,885th boys102nd girls
Rank in 2025 3,757th3,975th
First recorded 19691880
Girls / boys 0 / 58986,898 / 144

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 Beckys alive today are over 62; half the Beckets are over 9. That is 53 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: Becket and Becky.