Humanverse

Burleigh vs Burnell

American parents have registered 3,383 Burnells since 1880, against 467 Burleighs. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Burleigh against Burnell, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Burleigh Burnell

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 104 years in which either name was published, Burnell for 102 years and Burleigh for 2 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Burleigh Burnell
Total US births 4673,383
Most in one year 2986
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1001,200
Median age today 7667
Peak year 19321920
Best rank 1,254th boys816th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18921906
Girls / boys 0 / 467593 / 2,790

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 Burleighs alive today are over 76; half the Burnells are over 67. 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: Burleigh and Burnell.