Humanverse

Tafari vs Taft

American parents have registered 1,544 Tafts since 1880, against 970 Tafaris. But in 2025 it was Tafari that was commoner, 23 babies to 10.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tafari against Taft, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tafari Taft

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 116 years in which either name was published, Taft for 76 years and Tafari for 40 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Tafari Taft
Total US births 9701,544
Most in one year 5162
Babies in 2025 2310
Estimated living today 950850
Median age today 1738
Peak year 20231908
Best rank 2,575th boys272nd boys
Rank in 2025 4,396th7,679th
First recorded 19781907
Girls / boys 6 / 9640 / 1,544

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 Tafts alive today are over 38; half the Tafaris are over 17. That is 21 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: Tafari and Taft.