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Estelle vs Estes

American parents have registered 56,569 Estelles since 1880, against 601 Esteses. Estelle is still ahead, with 523 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Estelle Estes

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

Estelle 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 1956, when Estelle had 158 and Estes had 11.

Side by side

  Estelle Estes
Total US births 56,569601
Most in one year 1,79329
Babies in 2025 5237
Estimated living today 14,000150
Median age today 379
Peak year 19151916
Best rank 117th girls1,240th boys
Rank in 2025 573rdunranked
First recorded 18801887
Girls / boys 56,410 / 15956 / 545

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 Estelles alive today are over 37; half the Esteses are over 9. That is 28 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: Estelle and Estes.