Ether vs Ethyl

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Ether Ethyl

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

Of the 87 years in which either name was published, Ethyl for 70 years and Ether for 17 years. The lead changed hands 15 times.

• 1880–1930 Ethyl ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1931–1937 Ether ahead
• 1938–1962 Ethyl ahead, apart from 2 short spells
• 2013–2018 Ether ahead

9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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.

Where each one is strongest

• Ether Mississippi (48.3×), Alabama (6.5×), Georgia (3.6×)
• Ethyl Pennsylvania (6.5×), Illinois (3.2×), Ohio (2.2×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

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