Liam vs Noah: Twelve Years, Two Names, One Crown

Nov 6, 2026 Abigail Adams, Editorial writer

The boys' chart has had the same two names at the top for over a decade. Noah took the crown first. Liam took it off him in 2017 and has now held it for nine straight years — the longest boys' reign since Michael.

But here is the detail that makes this duel different from a dynasty: the runner-up never went away. And in 2025, he nearly caught up.

Noah's reign (2013–2016)

Noah reached #1 in 2013 and ruled for four years: 19,344 babies in 2014, 19,680 in 2015, 19,188 in 2016. Liam was second all three of those in-window years, learning the chart from directly below — 18,488, 18,410, 18,277 babies, close enough to see the crown, never close enough to take it.

The takeover (2017)

When the flip came, it came by a whisker: Liam 18,874, Noah 18,507 — a gap of 367 babies. To this day, that is one of the two closest finishes of the entire duel.

Liam then did what champions do: he pulled away. His numbers climbed year after year to a peak of 22,252 babies in 2024, while Noah settled into the strangest role in baby naming — permanent runner-up. Noah has now finished #2 for nine consecutive years, a silver-medal streak with no parallel in our data. He is simultaneously one of the most successful names in America and a name that has lost the same fight nine times in a row.

The closing gap (2025)

Which is why 2025 is interesting. For the first time since the takeover, the gap collapsed:

Liam: 20,818 babies
Noah: 20,358 babies
Gap: 460 babies

Through the middle of Liam's reign, the gap ran between roughly 1,400 and 1,850 babies a year. In 2025 it shrank to 460 — the closest finish since 2017's 367. Liam's total is falling from his 2024 peak faster than Noah's is, and for the first time in nine years, the duel looks like a duel again.

Does it matter who wins? For parents, only a little — at 20,000+ babies each, both names are equally "everywhere," and the difference between #1 and #2 is a rounding error in any classroom. But for the chart, 2026 is suddenly worth watching: a tenth straight year for Liam would put him in Jacob territory (14 years is the modern bar after Michael), while a Noah comeback would be the first successful reclamation of the boys' crown in our records.

Our advice: Treat Liam and Noah as the same decision, because statistically they nearly are. Same familiarity, same ease, same classroom density. Choose on sound, on family meaning, on how it pairs with your surname — not on the 460-baby gap, which will be invisible in your child's actual life.

The duelists: Liam, Noah. The full current chart: most popular boys' names of 2025.