Elder vs Eldon
American parents have registered 26,157 Eldons since 1880, against 2,320 Elders. Eldon is still ahead, with 60 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Elder Eldon
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, Eldon for 139 years and Elder for 6 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.
Side by side
| Elder | Eldon | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,320 | 26,157 |
| Most in one year | 58 | 647 |
| Babies in 2025 | 47 | 60 |
| Estimated living today | 1,500 | 8,600 |
| Median age today | 18 | 65 |
| Peak year | 2024 | 1926 |
| Best rank | 2,393rd boys | 211th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,718th | 2,304th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1881 |
| Girls / boys | 52 / 2,268 | 55 / 26,102 |
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 Eldons alive today are over 65; half the Elders are over 18. That is 47 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Elder California (5.5×), Georgia (3.4×), Texas (2.5×)
- Eldon Kansas (7.5×), Nebraska (7.1×), Iowa (6.5×)
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: Elder and Eldon.