Humanverse

Adeline vs Adelita

American parents have registered 80,838 Adelines since 1880, against 1,900 Adelitas. Adeline is still ahead, with 3,864 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Adeline against Adelita, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Adeline Adelita

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Adeline for 143 years and Adelita for 3 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Adeline Adelita
Total US births 80,8381,900
Most in one year 4,12643
Babies in 2025 3,86428
Estimated living today 53,0001,700
Median age today 847
Peak year 20161961
Best rank 63rd girls1,742nd girls
Rank in 2025 59th4,758th
First recorded 18801924
Girls / boys 80,812 / 261,900 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Adelitas alive today are over 47; half the Adelines are over 8. That is 39 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Adeline and Adelita.