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Belle vs Belton

American parents have registered 19,227 Belles since 1880, against 1,178 Beltons. Belle is still ahead, with 247 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Belle against Belton, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Belle Belton

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 146 years in which either name was published, Belle for 145 years and Belton for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Belle Belton
Total US births 19,2271,178
Most in one year 40733
Babies in 2025 247under 5
Estimated living today 6,800340
Median age today 1269
Peak year 19151923
Best rank 288th girls1,256th boys
Rank in 2025 1,013thunranked
First recorded 18801881
Girls / boys 19,227 / 00 / 1,178

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 Beltons alive today are over 69; half the Belles are over 12. That is 57 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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