Humanverse

Blanche vs Blannie

American parents have registered 87,648 Blanches since 1880, against 197 Blannies. Blanche is still ahead, with 16 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Blanche against Blannie, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Blanche Blannie

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

Blanche 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 1948, when Blanche had 350 and Blannie had 6.

Side by side

  Blanche Blannie
Total US births 87,648197
Most in one year 2,84212
Babies in 2025 16under 5
Estimated living today 8,40011
Median age today 7688
Peak year 19171913
Best rank 91st girls1,766th girls
Rank in 2025 6,838thunranked
First recorded 18801898
Girls / boys 87,425 / 223197 / 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 Blannies alive today are over 88; half the Blanches are over 76. That is 12 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: Blanche and Blannie.