Meta vs Metta
American parents have registered 6,211 Metas since 1880, against 1,123 Mettas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Meta Metta
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 140 years in which either name was published, Meta for 132 years and Metta for 8 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.
- 1880–2008 Meta ahead, apart from 2 short spells
12 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Meta | Metta | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 6,211 | 1,123 |
| Most in one year | 127 | 25 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 1,400 | 280 |
| Median age today | 64 | 57 |
| Peak year | 1892 | 1924 |
| Best rank | 230th girls | 1,723rd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 6,211 / 0 | 1,123 / 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 Metas alive today are over 64; half the Mettas are over 57. That is 7 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: Meta and Metta.