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Chester vs Chestina

American parents have registered 122,302 Chesters since 1880, against 115 Chestinas. Chester is still ahead, with 107 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Chester against Chestina, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Chester Chestina

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

Chester 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 2000, when Chester had 109 and Chestina had 7.

Side by side

  Chester Chestina
Total US births 122,302115
Most in one year 3,72611
Babies in 2025 107under 5
Estimated living today 33,00070
Median age today 6746
Peak year 19201917
Best rank 55th boys2,693rd girls
Rank in 2025 1,585thunranked
First recorded 18801917
Girls / boys 828 / 121,474115 / 0

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 Chesters alive today are over 67; half the Chestinas are over 46. That is 21 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: Chester and Chestina.