Humanverse

Allisa vs Ally

American parents have registered 10,247 Allys since 1880, against 1,340 Allisas. Ally is still ahead, with 88 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Allisa against Ally, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Allisa Ally

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 65 years in which either name was published, Ally for 40 years and Allisa for 25 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Allisa Ally
Total US births 1,34010,247
Most in one year 56636
Babies in 2025 under 588
Estimated living today 1,30010,000
Median age today 3218
Peak year 19981998
Best rank 2,461st girls417th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,117th
First recorded 19601985
Girls / boys 1,340 / 010,230 / 17

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 Allys are over 18. That is 14 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 Ally.