Humanverse

Alene vs Alexa

American parents have registered 131,835 Alexas since 1880, against 8,753 Alenes. Alexa is still ahead, with 243 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alene against Alexa, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alene Alexa

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 139 years in which either name was published, Alene for 77 years and Alexa for 62 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Alene Alexa
Total US births 8,753131,835
Most in one year 2646,125
Babies in 2025 5243
Estimated living today 2,600130,000
Median age today 7119
Peak year 19202006
Best rank 409th girls39th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd1,029th
First recorded 18831916
Girls / boys 8,748 / 5131,551 / 284

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 Alenes alive today are over 71; half the Alexas are over 19. That is 52 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: Alene and Alexa.