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Kimberly vs Kimberlyn

American parents have registered 850,666 Kimberlys since 1880, against 3,926 Kimberlyns. Kimberly is still ahead, with 1,009 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kimberly Kimberlyn

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

Kimberly has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1933 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Kimberly had 1,009 and Kimberlyn had 39.

Side by side

  Kimberly Kimberlyn
Total US births 850,6663,926
Most in one year 34,243121
Babies in 2025 1,00939
Estimated living today 792,0003,800
Median age today 5128
Peak year 19701993
Best rank 3rd girls1,358th girls
Rank in 2025 302nd3,780th
First recorded 19331955
Girls / boys 846,393 / 4,2733,926 / 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 Kimberlys alive today are over 51; half the Kimberlyns are over 28. That is 23 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: Kimberly and Kimberlyn.