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Parks vs Parris

American parents have registered 3,572 Parrises since 1880, against 1,485 Parkses. But in 2025 it was Parks that was commoner, 83 babies to 12.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Parks against Parris, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Parks Parris

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 113 years in which either name was published, Parris for 71 years and Parks for 42 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Parks Parris
Total US births 1,4853,572
Most in one year 83121
Babies in 2025 8312
Estimated living today 1,1003,300
Median age today 1031
Peak year 20251993
Best rank 1,976th boys1,472nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,976th12,008th
First recorded 18921917
Girls / boys 18 / 1,4671,669 / 1,903

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 Parrises alive today are over 31; half the Parkses are over 10. That is 21 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: Parks and Parris.