Humanverse

Thomasena vs Thora

American parents have registered 2,424 Thoras since 1880, against 768 Thomasenas. Thora is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Thomasena Thora

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 129 years in which either name was published, Thora for 91 years and Thomasena for 38 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Thomasena Thora
Total US births 7682,424
Most in one year 2672
Babies in 2025 under 520
Estimated living today 460830
Median age today 6614
Peak year 19481916
Best rank 1,858th girls802nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked5,917th
First recorded 19151883
Girls / boys 768 / 02,424 / 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 Thomasenas alive today are over 66; half the Thoras are over 14. That is 52 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: Thomasena and Thora.