Humanverse

Eimear vs Eimy

American parents have registered 1,408 Eimys since 1880, against 5 Eimears. Eimy is still ahead, with 238 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Eimear against Eimy, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Eimear Eimy

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

Eimy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1983 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2002, when Eimear had 5 and Eimy had 10.

Side by side

  Eimear Eimy
Total US births 51,408
Most in one year 5238
Babies in 2025 under 5238
Estimated living today 51,400
Median age today 234
Peak year 20022025
Best rank 15,432nd girls1,043rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,043rd
First recorded 20021983
Girls / boys 5 / 01,408 / 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 Eimears alive today are over 23; half the Eimys are over 4. That is 19 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Eimear and Eimy.