Besse vs Bessie
American parents have registered 170,877 Bessies since 1880, against 671 Besses. Bessie is still ahead, with 16 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Besse Bessie
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
Bessie 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 1884, when Besse had 26 and Bessie had 1,456.
Side by side
| Besse | Bessie | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 671 | 170,877 |
| Most in one year | 39 | 4,132 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 16 |
| Estimated living today | 1 | 21,000 |
| Median age today | 101 | 77 |
| Peak year | 1889 | 1916 |
| Best rank | 388th girls | 56th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 6,838th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 671 / 0 | 170,140 / 737 |
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 Besses alive today are over 101; half the Bessies are over 77. That is 24 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: Besse and Bessie.