Humanverse

Newell vs Newton

American parents have registered 8,182 Newtons since 1880, against 3,319 Newells. Newton is still ahead, with 15 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Newell against Newton, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Newell Newton

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

Newton 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 1940, when Newell had 53 and Newton had 66.

Side by side

  Newell Newton
Total US births 3,3198,182
Most in one year 105208
Babies in 2025 under 515
Estimated living today 8602,500
Median age today 6955
Peak year 19161919
Best rank 593rd boys404th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked5,861st
First recorded 18811880
Girls / boys 79 / 3,2405 / 8,177

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 Newells alive today are over 69; half the Newtons are over 55. That is 14 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: Newell and Newton.