Humanverse

Mea vs Meade

American parents have registered 1,690 Meas since 1880, against 521 Meades. Mea is still ahead, with 17 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mea against Meade, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mea Meade

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 100 years in which either name was published, Mea for 52 years and Meade for 48 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Mea Meade
Total US births 1,690521
Most in one year 11220
Babies in 2025 17under 5
Estimated living today 1,700190
Median age today 1863
Peak year 20051918
Best rank 1,755th girls1,710th boys
Rank in 2025 6,546thunranked
First recorded 19541913
Girls / boys 1,690 / 06 / 515

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 Meades alive today are over 63; half the Meas are over 18. That is 45 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: Mea and Meade.