Memory vs Memphis
American parents have registered 12,735 Memphises since 1880, against 1,356 Memorys. Memphis is still ahead, with 580 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Memory Memphis
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 106 years in which either name was published, Memory for 70 years and Memphis for 36 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.
Side by side
| Memory | Memphis | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,356 | 12,735 |
| Most in one year | 36 | 986 |
| Babies in 2025 | 17 | 580 |
| Estimated living today | 1,200 | 13,000 |
| Median age today | 35 | 7 |
| Peak year | 2006 | 2021 |
| Best rank | 4,073rd girls | 404th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 6,546th | 639th |
| First recorded | 1922 | 1915 |
| Girls / boys | 1,350 / 6 | 2,550 / 10,185 |
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 Memorys alive today are over 35; half the Memphises are over 7. That is 28 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
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Memory and Memphis.