Humanverse

Allan vs Allisa

American parents have registered 96,711 Allans since 1880, against 1,340 Allisas. Allan is still ahead, with 223 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Allan against Allisa, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Allan Allisa

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

Allan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Allan had 497 and Allisa had 56.

Side by side

  Allan Allisa
Total US births 96,7111,340
Most in one year 2,19256
Babies in 2025 223under 5
Estimated living today 57,0001,300
Median age today 5932
Peak year 19471998
Best rank 132nd boys2,461st girls
Rank in 2025 1,012thunranked
First recorded 18801960
Girls / boys 253 / 96,4581,340 / 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 Allans alive today are over 59; half the Allisas are over 32. That is 27 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: Allan and Allisa.