Humanverse

Risa vs Rise

American parents have registered 4,177 Risas since 1880, against 1,173 Rises. Risa is still ahead, with 22 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Risa Rise

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 84 years in which either name was published, Risa for 74 years and Rise for 10 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Risa Rise
Total US births 4,1771,173
Most in one year 13167
Babies in 2025 2215
Estimated living today 3,800960
Median age today 5167
Peak year 19621955
Best rank 925th girls1,229th girls
Rank in 2025 5,554thunranked
First recorded 19421942
Girls / boys 4,177 / 01,099 / 74

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 Rises alive today are over 67; half the Risas are over 51. That is 16 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: Risa and Rise.