Humanverse

Tom vs Tomie

American parents have registered 140,370 Toms since 1880, against 1,380 Tomies. Tom is still ahead, with 65 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tom against Tomie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tom Tomie

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

Tom has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2023, when Tom had 50 and Tomie had 6.

Side by side

  Tom Tomie
Total US births 140,3701,380
Most in one year 5,08053
Babies in 2025 65under 5
Estimated living today 66,000310
Median age today 6563
Peak year 19591919
Best rank 82nd boys1,097th boys
Rank in 2025 2,183rdunranked
First recorded 18801886
Girls / boys 614 / 139,756476 / 904

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 Toms alive today are over 65; half the Tomies are over 63. That is 2 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: Tom and Tomie.