Name Awesome

Babe

UnisexGirls' nameBoys' name

Baby

Babe has been given to 728 babies in the U.S. since 1890. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1915, with 19 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 53% girls, 47% boys all-time.

Babies named Babe, 1947

1 in 720,000

Babe over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Babe over time

In 1980, Babe went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

18801980

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Babe: meaning, origin, and history

Baby

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Babe means

Babe means “baby”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Babe is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈbeɪb/ for Babe.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Use of the common noun babe as a (nick)name.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Babe (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 383 girls were recorded with the name Babe between 1890 and 1947. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1915; its best national rank was #1,310 in 1905.

In the United States, 345 boys were recorded with the name Babe between 1880 and 1980. Its highest annual count was 16 in 1929; its best national rank was #921 in 1880.

How common is Babe?

Babe had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1947, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1947
1 in 720,000
5 of 3,602,100 births
Among girls only
1 in 355,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1947
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
499,358 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Babe sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1947 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 499,358 children born in 1947 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Babe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Babes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Babe was born before 1920 — so the typical Babe is around 105 today.

Median birth year
1920
About 105 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
34.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
38.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 34.7% of all recorded uses (133).

Is Babe rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1915 (19)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,310
1905

Spellings of Babe

Babe is not the most common spelling — Jane is, with 32.5% against Babe's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Babe is used

Across 1910–2025, Babe was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 2,456,184 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Babe has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Babe around the world

Where Babe ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1947–1947
    #366
    in 1947

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Babe by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,310
1905
Peak year
1915
19 that year
First recorded
1890
Last recorded
1947
All-time count
383
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#921
1880
Peak year
1929
16 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
1980
All-time count
345
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Babe

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BabsBabaraBetzabeBabbieBabetteBabbyBetsabeBabettaBabieBabbetteBabbiBabitaElizabeBabbett

Sibling names for Babe

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Babe

Top names of 1915, Babe's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1905Girls' names starting with BWalloon Girl NamesWalloon Names