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Eileen vs Eilene

American parents have registered 190,020 Eileens since 1880, against 2,087 Eilenes. Eileen is still ahead, with 437 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Eileen against Eilene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Eileen Eilene

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

Eileen has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2002, when Eileen had 380 and Eilene had 15.

Side by side

  Eileen Eilene
Total US births 190,0202,087
Most in one year 4,26754
Babies in 2025 43710
Estimated living today 105,0001,100
Median age today 6766
Peak year 19471946
Best rank 91st girls1,165th girls
Rank in 2025 654th9,457th
First recorded 18821909
Girls / boys 189,614 / 4062,087 / 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.

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: Eileen and Eilene.