Humanverse

Calamity vs Callum

American parents have registered 16,089 Callums since 1880, against 19 Calamitys. Callum is still ahead, with 3,003 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Calamity against Callum, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Calamity Callum

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 45 years in which either name was published, Callum for 43 years and Calamity for 2 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Calamity Callum
Total US births 1916,089
Most in one year 113,003
Babies in 2025 under 53,003
Estimated living today 1616,000
Median age today 693
Peak year 19562025
Best rank 3,696th girls118th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked118th
First recorded 19561983
Girls / boys 19 / 038 / 16,051

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 Calamitys alive today are over 69; half the Callums are over 3. That is 66 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: Calamity and Callum.