Humanverse

Byrd vs Byrum

American parents have registered 962 Byrds since 1880, against 9 Byrums. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Byrd against Byrum, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Byrd Byrum

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

Byrd has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 1963. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1919, when Byrd had 33 and Byrum had 9.

Side by side

  Byrd Byrum
Total US births 9629
Most in one year 339
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1000
Median age today 77106
Peak year 19191919
Best rank 1,408th boys2,877th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801919
Girls / boys 253 / 7090 / 9

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 Byrums alive today are over 106; half the Byrds are over 77. That is 29 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: Byrd and Byrum.