Humanverse

Jay vs Jaydy

American parents have registered 198,132 Jays since 1880, against 144 Jaydys. Jay is still ahead, with 818 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jay against Jaydy, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jay Jaydy

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

Jay 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 2007, when Jay had 766 and Jaydy had 35.

Side by side

  Jay Jaydy
Total US births 198,132144
Most in one year 5,42935
Babies in 2025 818under 5
Estimated living today 140,000140
Median age today 5618
Peak year 19602007
Best rank 78th boys4,299th girls
Rank in 2025 392ndunranked
First recorded 18802001
Girls / boys 2,584 / 195,548144 / 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 Jays alive today are over 56; half the Jaydys are over 18. That is 38 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: Jay and Jaydy.