Belford vs Belle
American parents have registered 19,227 Belles since 1880, against 229 Belfords. Belle is still ahead, with 247 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Belford Belle
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
Belle 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 Belford had 8 and Belle had 25.
Side by side
| Belford | Belle | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 229 | 19,227 |
| Most in one year | 17 | 407 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 247 |
| Estimated living today | 30 | 6,800 |
| Median age today | 78 | 12 |
| Peak year | 1921 | 1915 |
| Best rank | 1,980th boys | 288th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 1,013th |
| First recorded | 1900 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 229 | 19,227 / 0 |
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 Belfords alive today are over 78; half the Belles are over 12. That is 66 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: Belford and Belle.