Humanverse

Faris vs Farrell

American parents have registered 4,827 Farrells since 1880, against 3,245 Farises. But in 2025 it was Faris that was commoner, 150 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Faris against Farrell, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Faris Farrell

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 119 years in which either name was published, Farrell for 86 years and Faris for 33 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Faris Farrell
Total US births 3,2454,827
Most in one year 15099
Babies in 2025 150under 5
Estimated living today 3,0002,600
Median age today 1358
Peak year 20251935
Best rank 1,297th boys589th boys
Rank in 2025 1,297thunranked
First recorded 19151902
Girls / boys 20 / 3,225472 / 4,355

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 Farrells alive today are over 58; half the Farises are over 13. That is 45 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.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Faris Farrell
England and Wales 1,781204
France 660175
Ireland 1710

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Faris and Farrell.