Humanverse

Nobie vs Noble

American parents have registered 10,261 Nobles since 1880, against 496 Nobies. Noble is still ahead, with 149 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nobie Noble

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

Noble 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 1890, when Nobie had 10 and Noble had 21.

Side by side

  Nobie Noble
Total US births 49610,261
Most in one year 24204
Babies in 2025 under 5149
Estimated living today 605,100
Median age today 8117
Peak year 19161920
Best rank 1,533rd girls427th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,333rd
First recorded 18901880
Girls / boys 496 / 0486 / 9,775

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 Nobies alive today are over 81; half the Nobles are over 17. That is 64 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nobie and Noble.