Humanverse

Blanche vs Blase

American parents have registered 87,648 Blanches since 1880, against 779 Blases. Blanche is still ahead, with 16 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Blanche Blase

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 145 years in which either name was published, Blanche for 133 years and Blase for 12 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Blanche Blase
Total US births 87,648779
Most in one year 2,84216
Babies in 2025 16under 5
Estimated living today 8,400500
Median age today 7636
Peak year 19171948
Best rank 91st girls1,881st boys
Rank in 2025 6,838thunranked
First recorded 18801914
Girls / boys 87,425 / 2230 / 779

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 Blanches alive today are over 76; half the Blases are over 36. That is 40 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 Blase.