Humanverse

Allisa vs Allison

American parents have registered 322,944 Allisons since 1880, against 1,340 Allisas. Allison is still ahead, with 2,570 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Allisa against Allison, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Allisa Allison

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

Allison 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 1968, when Allisa had 20 and Allison had 1,565.

Side by side

  Allisa Allison
Total US births 1,340322,944
Most in one year 568,163
Babies in 2025 under 52,570
Estimated living today 1,300311,000
Median age today 3230
Peak year 19981994
Best rank 2,461st girls34th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked103rd
First recorded 19601880
Girls / boys 1,340 / 0319,119 / 3,825

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 Allisas alive today are over 32; half the Allisons are over 30. That is 2 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: Allisa and Allison.