U.S. Social Security · 1880–2025

Troy

The Faller

Peaked in 1968, 57 years ago — when 8,049 U.S. babies got the name.

A name that peaked in the 1960s and has been fading ever since.

1968peak
18801920196020002025
→ see where you land on Troy’s curve
Peak rank
#40
as high as Bennett sits today
Skew
98.8%
given to boys
Median birth year
1972
half born before this year
All-time
219k
babies since 1880
Names that rose & fell alongside it
How to read this — sources & method

Source. U.S. Social Security card applications, 1880–2025. A name is published only in years it was given to at least 5 babies, so rare and very recent names can be missing or clipped.

Raw, not modeled. Every number here is counted, not estimated: yearly births, national rank, peak year, and the median birth year (the year by which half of everyone ever given the name had been born).

“Peak” is the year the name was most common relative to all births that year — its cultural high-water mark, not just its largest raw count.

Modern rank-equivalent compares rank position across eras (a #40 name then vs. a #40 name today), not absolute frequency — far fewer names were recorded a century ago.

The Faller, and the birth-year badge, are assigned by fixed rules over the name’s curve (past its peak and fading.).

We deliberately don’t print a “typical age” — estimating how many bearers are still living needs a mortality model, which is an estimate, not a count. The median birth year above is the honest, unmodeled version.

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