Head to head · Girls' names
Abby vs Taytum
#731 vs #732 in 2025
Abby is a whisker ahead (#731 vs #732 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Abby is stepping back from its peak, Taytum is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Taytum has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Abby leads 5 measures of 6; Taytum leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Abby #871, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1890s: Abby #1253, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1900s: Abby #1571, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1910s: Abby #2319, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1920s: Abby #2235, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1930s: Abby #1773, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1940s: Abby #1263, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1950s: Abby #931, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1960s: Abby #717, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1970s: Abby #627, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1980s: Abby #222, Taytum — — Abby higher
- 1990s: Abby #215, Taytum #8426 — Abby higher
- 2000s: Abby #200, Taytum #2926 — Abby higher
- 2010s: Abby #393, Taytum #1725 — Abby higher
- 2020s: Abby #609, Taytum #836 — Abby higher
Abby stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Abby | Taytum |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #871 | — |
| 1890s | #1253 | — |
| 1900s | #1571 | — |
| 1910s | #2319 | — |
| 1920s | #2235 | — |
| 1930s | #1773 | — |
| 1940s | #1263 | — |
| 1950s | #931 | — |
| 1960s | #717 | — |
| 1970s | #627 | — |
| 1980s | #222 | — |
| 1990s | #215 | #8426 |
| 2000s | #200 | #2926 |
| 2010s | #393 | #1725 |
| 2020s | #609 | #836 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Abby
my father is joy (from Abigail)
The Hebrew Avigail combines the word for father with a root meaning joy or rejoicing, usually read as 'my father is joy' or 'my father's joy'.
Avigail → Abigail (Greek and Latin scriptures) → Abigail (English) → Abby
How it traveled
The name behind Abby is Avigail, borne in the first book of Samuel by a woman who talks David out of bloodshed and is praised for her good sense; she later becomes his wife. Greek and Latin translators of the Hebrew scriptures carried the name into Europe, where English Protestants took it up in earnest after the Reformation and kept it through the settling of the American colonies.
Taytum
from an English place name meaning "Tata's homestead"
The route is clear — Old English hām, homestead or settlement, attached to the personal name Tata. What Tata itself meant is not established; it belongs to a family of short Old English pet names whose sense has been lost.
Tata → Tateham → Tatham → Tatum → Taytum
How it traveled
Tatum starts as English geography — settlements named for a man called Tata — and hardens into a surname carried by families in northern England, notably in the Tatham and Tatum spellings. Surnames of that kind traveled well to America, where the jazz pianist Art Tatum made the sound familiar to a wide audience in the mid-twentieth century, and where the twentieth-century habit of turning surnames into girls' first names did the rest.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Abby
AB-ee
Stress on the first syllable, short a as in 'cab'. No regional variation to speak of in American English.
- Abbie — An older spelling of the same short form, common on nineteenth-century records and still given as a full legal name.
- Abbey — Spelling variant, used both as a nickname and as a name in its own right.
- Abs — Informal, mostly among friends and siblings; not used in writing.
- Abigail — The long form, available in reverse: many an Abby is Abigail on paper and Abby everywhere else.
- Also Gail.
Taytum
TAY-tum
Stress on the first syllable. The -ay- spelling removes the guesswork that Tatum occasionally invites, so readers land on it correctly the first time.
- Tay — The everyday short form; informal, and shared with Taylor.
- Tate — Drawn from the first syllable's sound; also stands alone as a given name in its own right, used for boys and girls.
- Tay-Tay — A doubling used mostly by family and in early childhood.
- Tot — An affectionate household form, rarely used outside the family.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Abby if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsAbby is stepping back from its peak
- a long American recordAbby was already in use when US records began in 1880
Choose Taytum if you want…
- a name on the way upup 445 places on the charts in five years
- a newer arrivalTaytum entered the US charts in 1992
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Abby
Strengths
- Understood instantly across the English-speaking world, with no pronunciation guesswork on the first day of school.
- Comes with a built-in formal option: parents who want both can register Abigail and use Abby from the start.
- A documented line running from the Hebrew Bible through Reformation England to American birth records, unbroken.
To consider
- Abby, Abbie and Abbey are all in genuine use, so expect to spell it out fairly often — and to receive mail with the other two.
- It is a diminutive by origin, which some people prefer to have as a choice rather than the whole name; registering Abigail keeps a longer version in reserve.
- The name is well past its high point and most Abbys in the country today are adults rather than children, so a girl named Abby now will likely be the only one in her class.
Taytum
Strengths
- The spelling states the pronunciation: nobody has to ask whether the first syllable is TAY or TAT.
- Short forms are already in circulation — Tay, Tate — and Tate is an established given name on its own.
- Sits inside a long-running American pattern of surnames used as first names, so it reads as familiar in kind even when the exact spelling is new.
To consider
- Tatum is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle correction — on forms, in email addresses, at the coffee counter.
- Respellings that swap in -ay- are a marker of a fairly narrow stretch of naming fashion, and that stamp may be legible to people later on.
- Surname names travel easily between boys and girls; Tatum is mostly given to girls in the US, but a stranger reading the name cold will not always assume that.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Abby and Taytum in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Abby and Taytum?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Sports legend names in the records
- First Lady names through the centuries
- The best baby names starting with T
- all guides
Where Abby and Taytum each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Abby or Taytum — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Abby or Taytum?
- Abby, in 2025: Abby ranked #731 with 379 babies; Taytum ranked #732 with 377 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Abby or Taytum?
- Taytum. Over the last five years Abby moved down 222 places; Taytum moved up 445 places.
- Which is the older name, Abby or Taytum?
- Abby was already in use when US records began in 1880; Taytum entered the US charts in 1992. On the American record, Abby is the older name.
- How many people are named Abby and Taytum?
- About 60,000 people named Abby are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 4,000 people named Taytum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Abbys or Taytums in the classroom?
- Abby will almost certainly be the only one in school. Taytum will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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