Robert vs Robyn
American parents have registered 4,869,849 Roberts since 1880, against 64,604 Robyns. Robert is still ahead, with 3,777 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Robert Robyn
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
Robert has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 2018, when Robert had 5,191 and Robyn had 267.
Side by side
| Robert | Robyn | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 4,869,849 | 64,604 |
| Most in one year | 91,892 | 1,907 |
| Babies in 2025 | 3,777 | 159 |
| Estimated living today | 2.6 million | 59,000 |
| Median age today | 60 | 50 |
| Peak year | 1947 | 1964 |
| Best rank | 2nd boys | 195th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 92nd | 1,436th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1921 |
| Girls / boys | 20,119 / 4,849,730 | 63,364 / 1,240 |
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 Roberts alive today are over 60; half the Robyns are over 50. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Robert Rhode Island (1.6×), Massachusetts (1.5×), Vermont (1.4×)
- Robyn Utah (3.2×), Hawaii (2.5×), the District of Columbia (1.6×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Robert | Robyn |
|---|---|---|
| France | 419,300 | 315 |
| England and Wales | 27,772 | 15,232 |
| New Zealand | 19,791 | 5,598 |
| Ireland | 20,417 | 4,620 |
| Scotland | 18,795 | 4,365 |
| Poland | 14,363 | 2 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,263 | 789 |
| Belgium | 530 | 237 |
| Switzerland | 525 | 159 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Robert and Robyn.