Humanverse

Parish vs Park

American parents have registered 1,637 Parks since 1880, against 1,212 Parishes. But in 2025 it was Parish that was commoner, 9 babies to 9.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Parish against Park, 1880 to 2025 0 15 30 45 60 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Parish Park

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 141 years in which either name was published, Park for 86 years and Parish for 55 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Parish Park
Total US births 1,2121,637
Most in one year 5633
Babies in 2025 99
Estimated living today 1,100700
Median age today 3244
Peak year 19911923
Best rank 1,823rd boys1,256th boys
Rank in 2025 8,243rd8,243rd
First recorded 19151880
Girls / boys 302 / 9100 / 1,637

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 Parks alive today are over 44; half the Parishes are over 32. That is 12 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: Parish and Park.