Humanverse

Trudy vs Truth

American parents have registered 25,628 Trudys since 1880, against 2,225 Truths. But in 2025 it was Truth that was commoner, 138 babies to 25.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Trudy against Truth, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Trudy Truth

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 128 years in which either name was published, Trudy for 105 years and Truth for 23 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Trudy Truth
Total US births 25,6282,225
Most in one year 975207
Babies in 2025 25138
Estimated living today 19,0002,200
Median age today 676
Peak year 19472021
Best rank 240th girls1,300th boys
Rank in 2025 5,099th1,654th
First recorded 18961914
Girls / boys 25,623 / 5773 / 1,452

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 Trudys alive today are over 67; half the Truths are over 6. That is 61 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: Trudy and Truth.