Head to head · Boys' names
Ares vs Atticus
#290 vs #281 in 2025
Atticus is a whisker ahead (#281 vs #290 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Atticus is holding its place on the charts, Ares is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Ares 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, Atticus leads 5 measures of 6; Ares 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: Ares —, Atticus #866 — Atticus higher
- 1910s: Ares —, Atticus #2544 — Atticus higher
- 1960s: Ares —, Atticus #3595 — Atticus higher
- 1970s: Ares —, Atticus #4626 — Atticus higher
- 1980s: Ares #6238, Atticus #4737 — Atticus higher
- 1990s: Ares #4807, Atticus #2437 — Atticus higher
- 2000s: Ares #2975, Atticus #980 — Atticus higher
- 2010s: Ares #880, Atticus #390 — Atticus higher
- 2020s: Ares #432, Atticus #279 — Atticus higher
Atticus stood higher in every recorded decade — 9 of 9.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ares | Atticus |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #866 |
| 1910s | — | #2544 |
| 1960s | — | #3595 |
| 1970s | — | #4626 |
| 1980s | #6238 | #4737 |
| 1990s | #4807 | #2437 |
| 2000s | #2975 | #980 |
| 2010s | #880 | #390 |
| 2020s | #432 | #279 |
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
Ares
Linked to Greek words for battle and ruin
The usual reading connects Ἄρης to the Greek noun arē, 'bane, ruin, curse,' and to a sense of 'battle strife' — the god's name as a plain word for what war does. Other scholars treat it as pre-Greek and unexplained, a divine name inherited by the Greeks rather than built from their own vocabulary. Both positions are seriously held.
Ἄρης (Ancient Greek) → Ares (Latin form) → Άρης / Áris (Modern Greek) → Ares (English, Spanish)
How it traveled
Ares belongs to the oldest layer of Greek religion, and the name appears in Greek texts from the Homeric poems onward, where he is the war god — quarrelsome, disliked by the other Olympians, and no one's favorite. The Romans matched him to their own Mars, but the Greek form stayed Greek, and it survives in modern Greece as Áris, a living given name rather than a museum piece.
Atticus
of Attica; Athenian
Attica is the region of Greece surrounding Athens; the Greek adjective Attikos was taken into Latin as a cognomen, often marking someone educated in Greece or long resident there.
Attikos → Atticus → Atticus
How it traveled
The name is Greek in root and Roman in use: Attikos, "of Attica," became the Latin cognomen Atticus. Titus Pomponius Atticus, the banker and letter-writing friend of Cicero, earned the name through his long years in Athens, and Herodes Atticus, the second-century orator and builder, carried it in the Greek world itself.
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
Ares
AIR-eez
AIR-eez is the English pronunciation, from the mythology. In Spanish the same spelling is said AH-res, with both syllables short and the stress on the first — worth deciding early, since both versions are in real use in the US and each side will assume the other.
- Ari — The most natural short form in English, and a standalone given name in its own right through Hebrew and Greek lines.
- Aris — The standard Greek form of the full name; used informally in English-speaking families as a slightly longer alternative to Ari.
- Rey / Res — Heard in Spanish-speaking households as a clipped, informal form; not established in wider use.
Atticus
AT-ih-kus
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling gives the sound away, so it is usually read correctly on first sight — an advantage many classical names do not have.
- Atti — The most common informal short form; used at home and among friends, rarely written on anything official.
- Attie — Same short form with a softer spelling; both spellings turn up in families.
- Tico — Informal, built from the middle of the name rather than the front.
- Finch — Occasionally used as a playful nickname among readers of To Kill a Mockingbird; it is a surname borrowed for fun, not a form of the name.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ares if you want…
- a name on the way upup 305 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesAres is 1 syllable to Atticus's 3
Choose Atticus if you want…
- a name holding steadyAtticus is holding its place on the charts
- a name with more sound in itAtticus runs 3 syllables, Ares 1
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
Ares
Strengths
- Five letters, spelled exactly as it sounds in both English and Spanish — no silent letters, no alternate spellings competing for attention.
- A documented record stretching back to the earliest Greek literature, unbroken as a name in Greece itself.
- Ari is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name, so there is a softer everyday option built in.
To consider
- It will be heard as Aries, the zodiac sign, constantly — in roll calls, on the phone, at the doctor's office. Expect a lifetime of gentle correcting, and note that the two words are genuinely close in English speech.
- The god himself gets a bad press in the Greek sources: Homer's Olympians find him brutal and tiresome. Most people only remember 'god of war,' but anyone who reads further finds an unflattering character.
- The pronunciation splits by language, so a child may answer to AIR-eez at school and AH-res at home. That works fine for many families, but it is worth choosing which one you will correct people to.
Atticus
Strengths
- Spelling and sound match: most English speakers read AT-ih-kus correctly the first time, without a spelling-out or a correction.
- A documented record stretching from Roman antiquity to the present, with real bearers in both Latin and Greek history.
- Recognizable across the English-speaking world through one widely taught novel, which means familiarity without commonness.
To consider
- The link to Atticus Finch is permanent, and it is no longer simple: Go Set a Watchman, published in 2015, shows the same character holding segregationist views. Many readers now hold both books in mind at once.
- There is no single agreed short form. Atti, Attie and Tico all circulate, so the family usually decides rather than inherits one.
- This is still overwhelmingly a name of young children rather than of adults, so a boy given it will meet few older namesakes — and will likely be the only one in his class either way.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Ares
58%chance Ares feels dated by 2040
Ares is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Atticus
40%chance Atticus feels dated by 2040
Atticus sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
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 Ares and Atticus 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 Ares and Atticus?
Put both to the vote.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Hero and god names for boys
- Names ending in -s
- The steadiest names in America
- all guides
Where Ares and Atticus each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ares or Atticus — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ares or Atticus?
- Atticus, in 2025: Atticus ranked #281 with 1,208 babies; Ares ranked #290 with 1,157 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ares or Atticus?
- Ares. Over the last five years Ares moved up 305 places; Atticus moved up 18 places.
- Which is the older name, Ares or Atticus?
- Ares entered the US charts in 1983; Atticus entered the US charts in 1881. On the American record, Atticus is the older name.
- How many people are named Ares and Atticus?
- About 8,200 people named Ares are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 18,000 people named Atticus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Aress or Atticuss in the classroom?
- Ares will almost certainly be the only one in school. Atticus 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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