Humanverse

Ave vs Avery

American parents have registered 236,886 Averys since 1880, against 939 Aves. Avery is still ahead, with 6,423 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ave against Avery, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ave Avery

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

Avery 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 1944, when Ave had 13 and Avery had 73.

Side by side

  Ave Avery
Total US births 939236,886
Most in one year 3111,861
Babies in 2025 106,423
Estimated living today 800230,000
Median age today 2112
Peak year 20072014
Best rank 4,675th girls14th girls
Rank in 2025 9,457th37th
First recorded 19131880
Girls / boys 939 / 0170,006 / 66,880

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 Aves alive today are over 21; half the Averys are over 12. That is 9 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: Ave and Avery.