Humanverse

Tor vs Torrey

American parents have registered 6,344 Torreys since 1880, against 886 Tors. Torrey is still ahead, with 25 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tor against Torrey, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tor Torrey

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 83 years in which either name was published, Torrey for 79 years and Tor for 4 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Tor Torrey
Total US births 8866,344
Most in one year 30340
Babies in 2025 1225
Estimated living today 8205,900
Median age today 3340
Peak year 19651977
Best rank 1,405th boys462nd boys
Rank in 2025 6,803rd6,446th
First recorded 19491938
Girls / boys 0 / 8861,278 / 5,066

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 Torreys alive today are over 40; half the Tors are over 33. That is 7 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: Tor and Torrey.