Babe
Babe was last recorded in 1980, when 5 babies were given it; 728 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Babe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Babe mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Babe is “a male given name or nickname”
Use of the common noun babe as a (nick)name.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Babe?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,358, in 1947; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
33 babies in 1927, the peak
Babe peaked in 1927, when 33 babies were given it (19 girls, #2,028 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | under 5 | 5 | #6,335 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 5 | #5,868 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 5 | #4,971 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 5 | #4,031 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 6 | #3,586 | |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,358 | 8 | #2,884 |
| 1943 | under 5 | 6 | #3,248 | |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,393 | 6 | #3,202 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,837 | 5 | #3,560 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,730 | 10 | #2,308 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | 6 | #3,789 | 9 | #2,542 |
| 1934 | under 5 | 7 | #2,998 | |
| 1933 | 7 | #3,435 | 11 | #2,218 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,598 | 8 | #2,867 |
| 1931 | 11 | #2,590 | 5 | #3,801 |
| 1930 | 10 | #2,861 | 14 | #2,087 |
| 1929 | 15 | #2,200 | 16 | #1,936 |
| 1928 | 15 | #2,291 | 11 | #2,531 |
| 1927 | 19 | #2,028 | 14 | #2,207 |
| 1926 | under 5 | 14 | #2,199 | |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,957 | 10 | #2,763 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,526 | 11 | #2,660 |
| 1923 | 12 | #2,743 | under 5 | |
| 1922 | 16 | #2,301 | 10 | #2,814 |
| 1921 | 16 | #2,295 | 12 | #2,508 |
| 1920 | 15 | #2,365 | 11 | #2,611 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,490 | 9 | #2,895 |
| 1918 | 12 | #2,692 | 8 | #3,122 |
| 1917 | 17 | #2,004 | 8 | #2,972 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,681 | 7 | #3,202 |
| 1915 | 19 | #1,745 | 8 | #2,845 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,656 | 6 | #2,947 |
| 1913 | 12 | #1,777 | 11 | #1,684 |
| 1912 | 7 | #2,389 | 9 | #1,758 |
| 1911 | 12 | #1,379 | under 5 | |
| 1910 | 9 | #1,646 | under 5 | |
| 1909 | 10 | #1,375 | 5 | #1,467 |
| 1908 | 8 | #1,555 | under 5 | |
| 1907 | under 5 | 6 | #1,204 | |
| 1905 | 9 | #1,310 | 7 | #1,008 |
| 1904 | 5 | #1,917 | under 5 | |
| 1903 | 5 | #1,818 | under 5 | |
| 1902 | 6 | #1,619 | under 5 | |
| 1900 | 9 | #1,326 | 6 | #1,178 |
| 1899 | under 5 | 6 | #938 | |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,727 | under 5 | |
| 1897 | under 5 | 5 | #1,073 | |
| 1896 | under 5 | 5 | #1,113 | |
| 1895 | under 5 | 5 | #1,090 | |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,510 | under 5 | |
| 1891 | 5 | #1,349 | under 5 | |
| 1890 | 5 | #1,349 | under 5 | |
| 1882 | under 5 | 5 | #951 | |
| 1880 | under 5 | 5 | #921 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Babe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 728 Americans recorded as Babe, 53% are girls and 47% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Babe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Babe, and how old are they?
An estimated 53 Americans named Babe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 697 people named Babe (428 women and girls, 269 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 96 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7.3 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 1,997 babies since 1880, Babe is the most given (36% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Babe
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Babe and names like it
- Compare Babe and BayBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sBabe peaked in 1927.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Babe since 1910.
- The top names of 1927The year the most babies were named Babe.
- Names starting with BMost given first.