Humanverse

Stokes vs Storm

American parents have registered 6,394 Storms since 1880, against 196 Stokeses. Storm is still ahead, with 219 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Stokes Storm

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 87 years in which either name was published, Storm for 71 years and Stokes for 16 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Stokes Storm
Total US births 1966,394
Most in one year 11252
Babies in 2025 8219
Estimated living today 906,200
Median age today 520
Peak year 19161995
Best rank 2,389th boys837th boys
Rank in 2025 8,910th2,108th
First recorded 18921946
Girls / boys 0 / 1962,789 / 3,605

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 Storms alive today are over 20; half the Stokeses are over 5. That is 15 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: Stokes and Storm.