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Rip vs Ripley

American parents have registered 3,590 Ripleys since 1880, against 688 Rips. Ripley is still ahead, with 399 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rip against Ripley, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rip Ripley

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 66 years in which either name was published, Ripley for 43 years and Rip for 23 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Rip Ripley
Total US births 6883,590
Most in one year 111399
Babies in 2025 59399
Estimated living today 6403,500
Median age today 45
Peak year 20212025
Best rank 1,565th boys1,029th girls
Rank in 2025 2,332nd1,029th
First recorded 19381918
Girls / boys 0 / 6882,555 / 1,035

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.

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: Rip and Ripley.