Humanverse

Ellender vs Ellie

American parents have registered 106,857 Ellies since 1880, against 30 Ellenders. Ellie is still ahead, with 6,176 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ellender 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 1933, when Ellender had 8 and Ellie had 61.

Side by side

  Ellender Ellie
Total US births 30106,857
Most in one year 86,322
Babies in 2025 under 56,176
Estimated living today 16102,000
Median age today 758
Peak year 19332024
Best rank 3,109th girls21st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked24th
First recorded 19331880
Girls / boys 30 / 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 Ellenders alive today are over 75; half the Ellies are over 8. That is 67 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: Ellender and Ellie.