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Ripley vs Ripton

American parents have registered 3,590 Ripleys since 1880, against 50 Riptons. Ripley is still ahead, with 399 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ripley Ripton

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

Ripley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1918 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Ripley had 247 and Ripton had 14.

Side by side

  Ripley Ripton
Total US births 3,59050
Most in one year 39914
Babies in 2025 39910
Estimated living today 3,50050
Median age today 53
Peak year 20252021
Best rank 1,029th girls6,032nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,029th7,679th
First recorded 19182021
Girls / boys 2,555 / 1,0350 / 50

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 Ripleys alive today are over 5; half the Riptons are over 3. That is 2 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: Ripley and Ripton.