Finis vs Finley
American parents have registered 42,288 Finleys since 1880, against 2,200 Finises. Finley is still ahead, with 1,770 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Finis Finley
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 142 years in which either name was published, Finley for 79 years and Finis for 63 years. The lead changed hands 42 times.
- 1882–1884 Finley ahead
- 1885–1953 Finis ahead, apart from 5 short spells
- 1963–2025 Finley ahead, apart from 3 short spells
32 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Finis | Finley | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,200 | 42,288 |
| Most in one year | 70 | 3,162 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 1,770 |
| Estimated living today | 490 | 41,000 |
| Median age today | 70 | 8 |
| Peak year | 1922 | 2017 |
| Best rank | 801st boys | 159th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 415th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 5 / 2,195 | 22,908 / 19,380 |
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 Finises alive today are over 70; half the Finleys are over 8. That is 62 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Finis Tennessee (10.8×), Arkansas (10.2×), Oklahoma (7.2×)
- Finley Montana (2.6×), Oregon (2.4×), Colorado (2.3×)
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: Finis and Finley.