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Burke vs Burnice

American parents have registered 4,188 Burkes since 1880, against 2,926 Burnices. Burke is still ahead, with 49 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Burke against Burnice, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Burke Burnice

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, Burke for 77 years and Burnice for 55 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Burke Burnice
Total US births 4,1882,926
Most in one year 79105
Babies in 2025 49under 5
Estimated living today 3,200600
Median age today 2676
Peak year 20131925
Best rank 1,827th boys905th girls
Rank in 2025 2,641stunranked
First recorded 18811893
Girls / boys 70 / 4,1181,593 / 1,333

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 Burnices alive today are over 76; half the Burkes are over 26. That is 50 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: Burke and Burnice.