Humanverse

Arna vs Arne

American parents have registered 2,854 Arnes since 1880, against 624 Arnas. But in 2025 it was Arna that was commoner, 15 babies to 7.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arna against Arne, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arna Arne

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 115 years in which either name was published, Arne for 97 years and Arna for 18 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Arna Arne
Total US births 6242,854
Most in one year 2969
Babies in 2025 157
Estimated living today 4701,300
Median age today 1163
Peak year 20211916
Best rank 4,607th girls724th boys
Rank in 2025 7,133rd9,714th
First recorded 19031903
Girls / boys 624 / 00 / 2,854

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 Arnes alive today are over 63; half the Arnas are over 11. That is 52 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 Arna Arne
Norway 26318,973
England and Wales 12379

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: Arna and Arne.