Humanverse

Fate vs Fatma

American parents have registered 1,329 Fates since 1880, against 835 Fatmas. But in 2025 it was Fatma that was commoner, 11 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Fate Fatma

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 133 years in which either name was published, Fate for 86 years and Fatma for 47 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Fate Fatma
Total US births 1,329835
Most in one year 3535
Babies in 2025 under 511
Estimated living today 420830
Median age today 2619
Peak year 19192014
Best rank 1,188th boys4,178th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked8,860th
First recorded 18801978
Girls / boys 143 / 1,186835 / 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 Fates alive today are over 26; half the Fatmas are over 19. That is 7 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: Fate and Fatma.