Humanverse

Arieana vs Ariel

American parents have registered 100,665 Ariels since 1880, against 791 Arieanas. Ariel is still ahead, with 1,384 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arieana against Ariel, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arieana Ariel

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

Ariel has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1892 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Arieana had 53 and Ariel had 2,052.

Side by side

  Arieana Ariel
Total US births 791100,665
Most in one year 536,077
Babies in 2025 under 51,384
Estimated living today 78098,000
Median age today 1823
Peak year 20091991
Best rank 3,161st girls66th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked355th
First recorded 19921892
Girls / boys 791 / 078,697 / 21,968

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 Ariels alive today are over 23; half the Arieanas are over 18. That is 5 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: Arieana and Ariel.