Humanverse

Mesa vs Meshach

American parents have registered 843 Mesas since 1880, against 572 Meshaches. Mesa is still ahead, with 32 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mesa against Meshach, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mesa Meshach

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 48 years in which either name was published, Mesa for 33 years and Meshach for 15 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Mesa Meshach
Total US births 843572
Most in one year 4732
Babies in 2025 327
Estimated living today 830560
Median age today 1324
Peak year 20131994
Best rank 3,367th girls2,392nd boys
Rank in 2025 4,352nd9,714th
First recorded 19721977
Girls / boys 843 / 00 / 572

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 Meshaches alive today are over 24; half the Mesas are over 13. That is 11 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: Mesa and Meshach.