Humanverse

Park vs Parnell

American parents have registered 1,637 Parks since 1880, against 1,479 Parnells. Park is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Park against Parnell, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Park Parnell

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, Park for 82 years and Parnell for 58 years. The lead changed hands 24 times.

16 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Park Parnell
Total US births 1,6371,479
Most in one year 3339
Babies in 2025 9under 5
Estimated living today 700870
Median age today 4453
Peak year 19231963
Best rank 1,256th boys1,238th boys
Rank in 2025 8,243rdunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 0 / 1,63757 / 1,422

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 Parnells alive today are over 53; half the Parks are over 44. That is 9 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: Park and Parnell.