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Kingston vs Kinte

American parents have registered 46,599 Kingstons since 1880, against 225 Kintes. Kingston is still ahead, with 1,725 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kingston against Kinte, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kingston Kinte

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 63 years in which either name was published, Kingston for 57 years and Kinte for 6 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Kingston Kinte
Total US births 46,599225
Most in one year 3,422116
Babies in 2025 1,725under 5
Estimated living today 46,000210
Median age today 848
Peak year 20211977
Best rank 112th boys834th boys
Rank in 2025 204thunranked
First recorded 19191976
Girls / boys 193 / 46,40612 / 213

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 Kintes alive today are over 48; half the Kingstons are over 8. That is 40 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: Kingston and Kinte.