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Duncan vs Ethan

How Duncan and Ethan 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

Duncan

Male · Celtic

Meaning: Dark Skinned Fighter

Ethan

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Strong

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Duncan (boys) vs Ethan (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 Duncan Ethan
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 530 boys 2004 — 22,210 boys
Peak rank #447 #5
Most recent rank (2023) #930 (244 births) #24 (7,852 births)
Total US births since 1880 7,160 472,430
Last 10 years (2014–2023) 2,066 100,110

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Ethan reached 22,210 US births in 2004 — 21,680 more than Duncan'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.

Duncan — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Kansas #548 17
2 Kentucky #554 20
3 Utah #561 54
4 Oregon #580 29
5 Minnesota #600 61

Ethan — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Maryland #7 1,997
2 New York #7 7,360
3 California #8 15,578
4 Florida #10 6,485
5 New Jersey #11 3,198

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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 →