Humanverse

Allee vs Allen

American parents have registered 273,662 Allens since 1880, against 1,192 Allees. Allen is still ahead, with 507 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Allee against Allen, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Allee Allen

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

Allen 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 2006, when Allee had 79 and Allen had 1,229.

Side by side

  Allee Allen
Total US births 1,192273,662
Most in one year 795,203
Babies in 2025 9507
Estimated living today 1,100166,000
Median age today 1956
Peak year 20061951
Best rank 2,375th girls72nd boys
Rank in 2025 10,107th578th
First recorded 19071880
Girls / boys 1,192 / 01,866 / 271,796

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 Allens alive today are over 56; half the Allees are over 19. That is 37 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: Allee and Allen.