Head to head · Boys' names
Camden vs Cohen
#205 vs #225 in 2025 · Old English vs Hebrew roots
Camden is a whisker ahead (#205 vs #225 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Camden is stepping back from its peak, Cohen is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Cohen 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, Camden leads 4 measures of 6; Cohen leads 2.
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
- 1910s: Camden #3777, Cohen #2875 — Cohen higher
- 1920s: Camden #4053, Cohen #3189 — Cohen higher
- 1930s: Camden #2479, Cohen #3622 — Camden higher
- 1940s: Camden #3236, Cohen #3410 — Camden higher
- 1950s: Camden #3702, Cohen #3968 — Camden higher
- 1960s: Camden #3423, Cohen #4033 — Camden higher
- 1970s: Camden #3489, Cohen #4731 — Camden higher
- 1980s: Camden #1654, Cohen #5128 — Camden higher
- 1990s: Camden #733, Cohen #3313 — Camden higher
- 2000s: Camden #252, Cohen #965 — Camden higher
- 2010s: Camden #138, Cohen #332 — Camden higher
- 2020s: Camden #185, Cohen #260 — Camden higher
Camden stood higher in 10 of 12 decades; Camden has held the lead since the 1930s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Camden | Cohen |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #3777 | #2875 |
| 1920s | #4053 | #3189 |
| 1930s | #2479 | #3622 |
| 1940s | #3236 | #3410 |
| 1950s | #3702 | #3968 |
| 1960s | #3423 | #4033 |
| 1970s | #3489 | #4731 |
| 1980s | #1654 | #5128 |
| 1990s | #733 | #3313 |
| 2000s | #252 | #965 |
| 2010s | #138 | #332 |
| 2020s | #185 | #260 |
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
Camden
valley name (from Old English denu, 'valley')
The last element is agreed: the Old English denu, a valley. The first element is argued over — readings of the Gloucestershire place name Campden include 'valley with enclosures' and 'winding valley', and the record is too thin to pick a winner. Either way it is a landscape name, not a virtue or a lineage.
Campden (Old English place name, from denu, 'valley') → Camden (surname) → Camden
How it traveled
Camden began as English ground — Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire — and became a surname for families from there. The Elizabethan historian William Camden gave the surname its fame, an earldom took it up, and the earl's title was in turn stamped on Camden Town in London and Camden, New Jersey.
Cohen
Priest (Hebrew)
From Hebrew kohen, the term for a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, and by inheritance for a descendant of Aaron.
kohen (Hebrew) → Cohen → Kohn / Kahn → Kogan
How it traveled
The Hebrew word kohen named the priests who served in the Temple in Jerusalem, a status passed from father to son through the line of Aaron. After the Temple's destruction the designation stayed with the families themselves, marked in synagogue life by the first call to the Torah and by the priestly blessing.
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
Camden
KAM-den
Two crisp syllables; the second is unstressed, as in London's Camden Town.
- Cam — The near-universal short, used from childhood on; it also stands alone on birth certificates.
- Cammy — Informal and affectionate, mostly inside families; used for boys and girls alike.
Cohen
KOH-en
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some speakers sound the h lightly, giving KOH-hen; both are heard and neither is corrected much.
- Co — Informal clipping used at home; not a standalone given name.
- Coco — Occasional family nickname for young children, more often heard for girls' names.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Camden if you want…
- a name most people already know#205 in 2025, 1,722 babies that year
- a name past its most crowded yearsCamden is stepping back from its peak
Choose Cohen if you want…
- a name fewer children share#225 in 2025 — cohen will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 61 places on the charts in five years
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
Camden
Strengths
- Comes with Cam built in — a short form that needs no explaining.
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, with no rival spelling in wide use.
- True of either child: the spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys, and it reads cleanly on both.
To consider
- Class lists now hold many Cam- names — Camden, Kamden, Camren, Cameron — and they blur together aloud.
- It is also two well-known city districts; Londoners and New Jerseyans will each hear their own first.
- Though recorded for both, nearly every Camden is a boy — a girl with the name will regularly meet surprised expectations, which some families count as a feature.
Cohen
Strengths
- Reads correctly on sight for most English speakers — two syllables, stress in the expected place, no silent letters.
- One dominant spelling, already familiar from its long life as a surname, so it rarely needs to be spelled out.
- A documented record stretching back to biblical Hebrew, with recognizable forms in German, French, Russian and Yiddish.
To consider
- In Jewish tradition Cohen is not a given name at all — it marks priestly descent from Aaron, and carries a specific religious status. Many Jewish families consider its use as a first name by others a real misstep, and you may hear that directly. Worth deciding how you'd answer.
- The wave is very recent, so a boy named Cohen will mostly meet adults who know the word as a surname. That gap tends to close as a generation grows up with it, but it exists now.
- Koen, Kohen and Coen are all in circulation, and Coen is familiar to film audiences. Expect the occasional wrong guess in writing, even though the spoken name gives people no trouble.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Camden
65%chance Camden feels dated by 2040
Camden is coming down from a big peak (#99 in 2013). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Cohen
50%chance Cohen feels dated by 2040
Cohen 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.
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 Camden and Cohen 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 Camden and Cohen?
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
- Place names on the map and the birth certificate
- Surname names used up front
- Names ending in -den / -don
- all guides
Where Camden and Cohen each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Camden or Cohen — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Camden or Cohen?
- Camden, in 2025: Camden ranked #205 with 1,722 babies; Cohen ranked #225 with 1,590 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Camden or Cohen?
- Cohen. Over the last five years Camden moved down 38 places; Cohen moved up 61 places.
- Which is the older name, Camden or Cohen?
- Camden entered the US charts in 1915; Cohen entered the US charts in 1912. On the American record, Cohen is the older name.
- How many people are named Camden and Cohen?
- About 58,500 people named Camden are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 22,500 people named Cohen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Camdens or Cohens in the classroom?
- Camden will almost certainly be the only one in school. Cohen 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
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Camden, Cohen and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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