Humanverse

Ariel vs Aryel

American parents have registered 100,665 Ariels since 1880, against 626 Aryels. Ariel is still ahead, with 1,384 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ariel Aryel

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 2010, when Ariel had 1,875 and Aryel had 26.

Side by side

  Ariel Aryel
Total US births 100,665626
Most in one year 6,07729
Babies in 2025 1,3848
Estimated living today 98,000620
Median age today 2319
Peak year 19912007
Best rank 66th girls5,230th girls
Rank in 2025 355th10,917th
First recorded 18921988
Girls / boys 78,697 / 21,968577 / 49

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 Aryels are over 19. That is 4 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 Aryel.