Humanverse

Spirit vs Spiro

American parents have registered 1,011 Spiros since 1880, against 873 Spirits. But in 2025 it was Spirit that was commoner, 25 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Spirit against Spiro, 1880 to 2025 0 15 30 45 60 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Spirit Spiro

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 101 years in which either name was published, Spiro for 69 years and Spirit for 32 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Spirit Spiro
Total US births 8731,011
Most in one year 5726
Babies in 2025 25under 5
Estimated living today 870660
Median age today 1547
Peak year 20031970
Best rank 2,737th girls1,699th boys
Rank in 2025 5,099thunranked
First recorded 19751913
Girls / boys 857 / 160 / 1,011

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 Spiros alive today are over 47; half the Spirits are over 15. That is 32 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: Spirit and Spiro.