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Pierce vs Liam

How Pierce 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

Pierce

Male · English

Meaning: Rock

Liam

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Helmeted

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Pierce (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 Pierce Liam
Peak year (most US births) 2015 — 648 boys 2024 — 22,164 boys
Peak rank #466 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #505 (598 births) #1 (20,818 births)
Total US births since 1880 14,200 343,615
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 5,743 202,429

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Liam reached 22,164 US births in 2024 — 21,516 more than Pierce'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.

Pierce — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 South Dakota #256 17
2 Connecticut #371 65
3 Nebraska #383 56
4 Kansas #412 87
5 Wisconsin #434 118

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 →