The world’s “oldest baby” has been born. At least that’s what people are calling a child born in the US from an embryo that was frozen in 1994, reports MIT Technology Review.
Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on July 26, 2025, but he was actually conceived in 1994, when Forrest Gump was in theaters and pagers were more common than cellphones.
The embryo came from Linda Archerd, now 62, who originally had four embryos created through IVF with her then-husband. One of those embryos became a daughter, who’s now 30 and a mom herself. The other three were frozen and stayed that way for more than three decades.
After a divorce, Archerd explored embryo “adoption,” an offshoot of IVF where the donor and recipient make a mutual decision as to who receives the embryos. She chose a white, Christian, married couple, Lindsey and Tim Pierce, as the recipients. The embryo became their son, Thaddeus.
The World’s Oldest Baby Was Born From an Embryo Frozen in 1994
The doctor who oversaw the transfer, John Gordon, runs a faith-based fertility clinic and is on a mission to reduce embryo stockpiles. According to Gordon, the only embryos that can’t become babies are the ones that never get the chance.
For whatever reason, the embryo that would one day become Thaddeus was skipped over for over 30 years. Thanks to modern science and a little bit of divine matchmaking, a three-decade-old embryo has become a newborn baby.
Not only does Thaddeus have the distinction of being one of, if not the, oldest embryos ever born, according to my quick research, there’s a good chance he’s probably going to be one of the last Thaddeus ever born.
According to data from the Social Security Administration, the name Thaddeus reached its peak of popularity in 1918, when it was the 307th most popular baby name of the year.
Its rank has fluctuated over the century, and it has dropped to its lowest in 2010 when it was the 994th most popular baby name. It has since experienced a modest resurgence, peaking in 2016, when it was the 640th most popular baby name. In 2024, Thaddeus was the 850th most popular baby name.
To put it another way, Thaddeus is an old-fashioned name, with its peak of popularity dating back to the end of World War I. It makes perfect sense that a baby labeled as the world’s oldest would be given a name usually reserved for Civil War veterans with a missing leg and a drinking problem.
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