Humanverse

Rubin vs Rubye

American parents have registered 7,070 Rubins since 1880, against 6,967 Rubyes. Rubin is still ahead, with 17 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rubin against Rubye, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rubin Rubye

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 144 years in which either name was published, Rubin for 88 years and Rubye for 56 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Rubin Rubye
Total US births 7,0706,967
Most in one year 147256
Babies in 2025 17under 5
Estimated living today 3,2001,200
Median age today 5178
Peak year 19231919
Best rank 502nd boys403rd girls
Rank in 2025 5,399thunranked
First recorded 18801886
Girls / boys 16 / 7,0546,967 / 0

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 Rubyes alive today are over 78; half the Rubins are over 51. That is 27 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: Rubin and Rubye.