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Alder vs Aldine

American parents have registered 1,431 Alders since 1880, against 962 Aldines. Alder is still ahead, with 139 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alder against Aldine, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alder Aldine

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 86 years in which either name was published, Aldine for 56 years and Alder for 30 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Alder Aldine
Total US births 1,431962
Most in one year 13952
Babies in 2025 139under 5
Estimated living today 1,400130
Median age today 580
Peak year 20251926
Best rank 1,401st boys1,262nd girls
Rank in 2025 1,401stunranked
First recorded 19031891
Girls / boys 68 / 1,363804 / 158

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 Aldines alive today are over 80; half the Alders are over 5. That is 75 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: Alder and Aldine.