Humanverse

Diem vs Diesel

American parents have registered 2,092 Diesels since 1880, against 806 Diems. Diesel is still ahead, with 59 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Diem against Diesel, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Diem Diesel

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 40 years in which either name was published, Diesel for 25 years and Diem for 15 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Diem Diesel
Total US births 8062,092
Most in one year 63156
Babies in 2025 759
Estimated living today 8002,100
Median age today 1211
Peak year 20122014
Best rank 2,978th girls1,186th boys
Rank in 2025 11,932nd2,332nd
First recorded 19802001
Girls / boys 717 / 890 / 2,092

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.

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: Diem and Diesel.