Humanverse

Quention vs Quest

American parents have registered 1,126 Quests since 1880, against 71 Quentions. Quest is still ahead, with 62 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Quention against Quest, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Quention Quest

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 45 years in which either name was published, Quest for 35 years and Quention for 10 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Quention Quest
Total US births 711,126
Most in one year 1793
Babies in 2025 under 562
Estimated living today 301,100
Median age today 497
Peak year 19192022
Best rank 1,882nd boys1,861st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,390th
First recorded 19181991
Girls / boys 0 / 7159 / 1,067

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 Quentions alive today are over 49; half the Quests are over 7. That is 42 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: Quention and Quest.