Humanverse

Elise vs Elizbeth

American parents have registered 75,252 Elises since 1880, against 1,282 Elizbeths. Elise is still ahead, with 1,367 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Elise against Elizbeth, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Elise Elizbeth

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

Elise has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1882, when Elise had 29 and Elizbeth had 6.

Side by side

  Elise Elizbeth
Total US births 75,2521,282
Most in one year 2,12627
Babies in 2025 1,3675
Estimated living today 67,000770
Median age today 2150
Peak year 20121960
Best rank 152nd girls2,246th girls
Rank in 2025 223rd14,942nd
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 75,186 / 661,282 / 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 Elizbeths alive today are over 50; half the Elises are over 21. That is 29 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: Elise and Elizbeth.