Humanverse

Earlene vs Earnie

American parents have registered 14,170 Earlenes since 1880, against 1,506 Earnies. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Earlene Earnie

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 99 years in which either name was published, Earlene for 96 years and Earnie for 3 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Earlene Earnie
Total US births 14,1701,506
Most in one year 40741
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 6,700580
Median age today 7469
Peak year 19471948
Best rank 401st girls1,231st boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19011902
Girls / boys 14,165 / 5326 / 1,180

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 Earlenes alive today are over 74; half the Earnies are over 69. That is 5 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: Earlene and Earnie.