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Jake vs Liam

How Jake and Liam 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

Jake

Male · English

Meaning: Abbreviation Of Jacob.

Liam

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Helmeted

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Jake (boys) vs Liam (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 Jake Liam
Peak year (most US births) 2004 — 4,471 boys 2024 — 22,164 boys
Peak rank #98 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #457 (682 births) #1 (20,818 births)
Total US births since 1880 70,192 343,615
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 10,644 202,429

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Liam reached 22,164 US births in 2024 — 17,693 more than Jake's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Jake births Liam births
2006 Liam 4,028 4,514

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.

Jake — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #152 615
2 New York #181 1,096
3 Rhode Island #183 25
4 Connecticut #192 182
5 Massachusetts #197 324

Liam — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Nevada #1 1,758
2 New Jersey #1 6,079
3 Florida #1 14,195
4 Oklahoma #1 1,983
5 New York #1 12,930

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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 →