Humanverse

Ellar vs Ellie

American parents have registered 106,857 Ellies since 1880, against 511 Ellars. Ellie is still ahead, with 6,176 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ellar against Ellie, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ellar Ellie

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

Ellie 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 1889, when Ellar had 10 and Ellie had 34.

Side by side

  Ellar Ellie
Total US births 511106,857
Most in one year 166,322
Babies in 2025 under 56,176
Estimated living today 50102,000
Median age today 818
Peak year 19222024
Best rank 2,291st girls21st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked24th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 511 / 0105,677 / 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 Ellars alive today are over 81; half the Ellies are over 8. That is 73 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: Ellar and Ellie.