Humanverse

Ellie vs Ellwood

American parents have registered 106,857 Ellies since 1880, against 1,979 Ellwoods. Ellie is still ahead, with 6,176 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ellie Ellwood

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 1944, when Ellie had 49 and Ellwood had 39.

Side by side

  Ellie Ellwood
Total US births 106,8571,979
Most in one year 6,32282
Babies in 2025 6,176under 5
Estimated living today 102,000310
Median age today 874
Peak year 20241918
Best rank 21st girls692nd boys
Rank in 2025 24thunranked
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 105,677 / 1,1800 / 1,979

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 Ellwoods alive today are over 74; half the Ellies are over 8. That is 66 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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: Ellie and Ellwood.