Humanverse

Jim vs Jimbo

American parents have registered 153,938 Jims since 1880, against 23 Jimbos. Jim is still ahead, with 38 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jim Jimbo

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

Jim 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 1961, when Jim had 5,362 and Jimbo had 10.

Side by side

  Jim Jimbo
Total US births 153,93823
Most in one year 5,69710
Babies in 2025 38under 5
Estimated living today 76,00018
Median age today 6662
Peak year 19591961
Best rank 70th boys2,706th boys
Rank in 2025 3,128thunranked
First recorded 18801961
Girls / boys 816 / 153,1220 / 23

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 Jims alive today are over 66; half the Jimbos are over 62. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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