Humanverse

Ariel vs Aristede

American parents have registered 100,665 Ariels since 1880, against 22 Aristedes. Ariel is still ahead, with 1,384 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ariel Aristede

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 1969, when Ariel had 112 and Aristede had 17.

Side by side

  Ariel Aristede
Total US births 100,66522
Most in one year 6,07717
Babies in 2025 1,384under 5
Estimated living today 98,00019
Median age today 2356
Peak year 19911969
Best rank 66th girls2,046th boys
Rank in 2025 355thunranked
First recorded 18921969
Girls / boys 78,697 / 21,9680 / 22

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 Aristedes alive today are over 56; half the Ariels are over 23. That is 33 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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