Humanverse

Damarcus vs Damien

American parents have registered 65,018 Damiens since 1880, against 3,262 Damarcuses. Damien is still ahead, with 935 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Damarcus against Damien, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Damarcus Damien

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

Damien has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1936 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1995, when Damarcus had 125 and Damien had 954.

Side by side

  Damarcus Damien
Total US births 3,26265,018
Most in one year 1312,265
Babies in 2025 16935
Estimated living today 3,20063,000
Median age today 2420
Peak year 20062007
Best rank 1,273rd boys182nd boys
Rank in 2025 5,608th352nd
First recorded 19711936
Girls / boys 0 / 3,262261 / 64,757

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 Damarcuses alive today are over 24; half the Damiens are over 20. That is 4 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: Damarcus and Damien.