Humanverse

Tilda vs Tilman

American parents have registered 2,040 Tildas since 1880, against 930 Tilmans. Tilda is still ahead, with 17 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tilda against Tilman, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tilda Tilman

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 130 years in which either name was published, Tilda for 109 years and Tilman for 21 years. The lead changed hands 18 times.

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

Side by side

  Tilda Tilman
Total US births 2,040930
Most in one year 3526
Babies in 2025 17under 5
Estimated living today 700340
Median age today 6155
Peak year 19241926
Best rank 1,382nd girls1,432nd boys
Rank in 2025 6,546thunranked
First recorded 18801881
Girls / boys 2,040 / 00 / 930

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 Tildas alive today are over 61; half the Tilmans are over 55. That is 6 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: Tilda and Tilman.