9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Corey vs James

How Corey and James compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Corey

Male · Scottish

Meaning: Seething Pool

James

Male · English

Meaning: Replace

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Corey (boys) vs James (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Corey James
Peak year (most US births) 1989 — 8,004 boys 1947 — 94,763 boys
Peak rank #55 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #778 (327 births) #6 (11,945 births)
Total US births since 1880 168,406 5,250,515
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 5,275 128,527

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, James reached 94,763 US births in 1947 — 86,759 more than Corey's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Corey — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Louisiana #325 164
2 Mississippi #329 96
3 South Carolina #391 119
4 Nevada #392 23
5 Massachusetts #402 110

James — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Mississippi #2 1,549
2 Alabama #2 2,711
3 South Carolina #3 2,285
4 Tennessee #4 3,524
5 District of Columbia #4 564

Want a different comparison?

Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →