Thad vs Thaddeus

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Thad Thaddeus

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 146 years in which either name was published, Thaddeus for 130 years and Thad for 16 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.

• 1883–1885 Thaddeus ahead
• 1893–1896 Thad ahead
• 1897–1965 Thaddeus ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1966–1970 Thad ahead
• 1971–2025 Thaddeus ahead

9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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 Thads alive today are over 54; half the Thaddeuses are over 35. That is 19 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Thad South Dakota (4.1×), North Carolina (4.1×), Iowa (3.0×)
• Thaddeus Louisiana (2.5×), Illinois (2.1×), Michigan (1.9×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

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