Humanverse

Rodney vs Rodriguez

American parents have registered 248,325 Rodneys since 1880, against 957 Rodriguezes. Rodney is still ahead, with 197 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rodney against Rodriguez, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rodney Rodriguez

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

Rodney 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 2016, when Rodney had 341 and Rodriguez had 12.

Side by side

  Rodney Rodriguez
Total US births 248,325957
Most in one year 11,13247
Babies in 2025 197under 5
Estimated living today 185,000890
Median age today 5842
Peak year 19651981
Best rank 33rd boys1,373rd boys
Rank in 2025 1,091stunranked
First recorded 18801955
Girls / boys 1,175 / 247,1505 / 952

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 Rodneys alive today are over 58; half the Rodriguezes are over 42. 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: Rodney and Rodriguez.