Humanverse

Alycia vs Alys

American parents have registered 10,168 Alycias since 1880, against 1,359 Alyses. But in 2025 it was Alys that was commoner, 27 babies to 24.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alycia against Alys, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alycia Alys

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 129 years in which either name was published, Alycia for 79 years and Alys for 50 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Alycia Alys
Total US births 10,1681,359
Most in one year 45829
Babies in 2025 2427
Estimated living today 9,800750
Median age today 3432
Peak year 19901920
Best rank 520th girls1,511th girls
Rank in 2025 5,238th4,878th
First recorded 19351880
Girls / boys 10,168 / 01,359 / 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 Alycias alive today are over 34; half the Alyses are over 32. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Alycia Alys
France 5,965430
England and Wales 3241,896
Belgium 31323
Scotland 37

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Alycia and Alys.