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Evell vs Evelyn

American parents have registered 641,662 Evelyns since 1880, against 8 Evells. Evelyn is still ahead, with 9,131 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Evell against Evelyn, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Evell Evelyn

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

Evelyn 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 1925, when Evell had 8 and Evelyn had 12,541.

Side by side

  Evell Evelyn
Total US births 8641,662
Most in one year 814,308
Babies in 2025 under 59,131
Estimated living today 0315,000
Median age today 10018
Peak year 19251921
Best rank 3,155th boys12th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked8th
First recorded 19251880
Girls / boys 0 / 8639,756 / 1,906

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 Evells alive today are over 100; half the Evelyns are over 18. That is 82 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: Evell and Evelyn.