Humanverse

Ellender vs Ellis

American parents have registered 57,731 Ellises since 1880, against 30 Ellenders. Ellis is still ahead, with 1,832 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ellender against Ellis, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ellender Ellis

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

Ellis 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 Ellis had 436.

Side by side

  Ellender Ellis
Total US births 3057,731
Most in one year 81,832
Babies in 2025 under 51,832
Estimated living today 1635,000
Median age today 7512
Peak year 19332025
Best rank 3,109th girls243rd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked243rd
First recorded 19331880
Girls / boys 30 / 07,328 / 50,403

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 Ellises are over 12. That is 63 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 Ellis.