Humanverse

Hatcher vs Hattie

American parents have registered 105,691 Hatties since 1880, against 617 Hatchers. Hattie is still ahead, with 923 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Hatcher Hattie

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

Hattie 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 2006, when Hatcher had 21 and Hattie had 129.

Side by side

  Hatcher Hattie
Total US births 617105,691
Most in one year 522,006
Babies in 2025 22923
Estimated living today 61026,000
Median age today 851
Peak year 20211918
Best rank 2,523rd boys121st girls
Rank in 2025 4,539th334th
First recorded 20011880
Girls / boys 0 / 617105,197 / 494

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 Hatties alive today are over 51; half the Hatchers are over 8. That is 43 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

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Hatcher and Hattie.