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Ellington vs Elliot

American parents have registered 65,600 Elliots since 1880, against 1,704 Ellingtons. Elliot is still ahead, with 2,658 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ellington against Elliot, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ellington Elliot

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

Elliot 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 1921, when Ellington had 5 and Elliot had 85.

Side by side

  Ellington Elliot
Total US births 1,70465,600
Most in one year 1242,932
Babies in 2025 842,658
Estimated living today 1,70061,000
Median age today 811
Peak year 20152022
Best rank 2,209th girls150th boys
Rank in 2025 2,859th151st
First recorded 19211880
Girls / boys 1,004 / 7007,008 / 58,592

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 Elliots alive today are over 11; half the Ellingtons are over 8. That is 3 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: Ellington and Elliot.