Humanverse

Arnette vs Arnold

American parents have registered 104,396 Arnolds since 1880, against 1,088 Arnettes. Arnold is still ahead, with 120 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arnette against Arnold, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arnette Arnold

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

Arnold has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1982, when Arnette had 11 and Arnold had 267.

Side by side

  Arnette Arnold
Total US births 1,088104,396
Most in one year 492,031
Babies in 2025 under 5120
Estimated living today 70038,000
Median age today 6665
Peak year 19591924
Best rank 1,643rd girls95th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,477th
First recorded 19071880
Girls / boys 1,055 / 33550 / 103,846

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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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