Humanverse

Topanga vs Topher

American parents have registered 799 Topangas since 1880, against 142 Tophers. Topanga is still ahead, with 29 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Topanga against Topher, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Topanga Topher

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

Topanga has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1994 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Topanga had 22 and Topher had 15.

Side by side

  Topanga Topher
Total US births 799142
Most in one year 4815
Babies in 2025 295
Estimated living today 790140
Median age today 149
Peak year 19982013
Best rank 2,756th girls5,659th boys
Rank in 2025 4,661st12,008th
First recorded 19942007
Girls / boys 799 / 00 / 142

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 Topangas alive today are over 14; half the Tophers are over 9. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Topanga and Topher.