Humanverse

Boy vs Boyce

American parents have registered 5,576 Boyces since 1880, against 923 Boys. But in 2025 it was Boy that was commoner, 18 babies to 8.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Boy against Boyce, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Boy Boyce

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 132 years in which either name was published, Boyce for 100 years and Boy for 32 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Boy Boyce
Total US births 9235,576
Most in one year 42126
Babies in 2025 188
Estimated living today 8702,200
Median age today 1764
Peak year 20191934
Best rank 2,897th boys535th boys
Rank in 2025 5,208th8,910th
First recorded 19001885
Girls / boys 0 / 92358 / 5,518

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 Boyces alive today are over 64; half the Boys are over 17. That is 47 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: Boy and Boyce.