Humanverse

Mosby vs Mose

American parents have registered 7,990 Moses since 1880, against 14 Mosbys. Mose is still ahead, with 25 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mosby against Mose, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mosby Mose

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

Mose has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2016, when Mosby had 5 and Mose had 14.

Side by side

  Mosby Mose
Total US births 147,990
Most in one year 9168
Babies in 2025 under 525
Estimated living today 52,300
Median age today 958
Peak year 19201919
Best rank 2,967th boys451st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked4,139th
First recorded 19201880
Girls / boys 0 / 1455 / 7,935

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 Moses alive today are over 58; half the Mosbys are over 9. That is 49 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: Mosby and Mose.