Humanverse

Galilee vs Galvin

American parents have registered 911 Galvins since 1880, against 648 Galilees. But in 2025 it was Galilee that was commoner, 40 babies to 5.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Galilee against Galvin, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Galilee Galvin

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 89 years in which either name was published, Galvin for 73 years and Galilee for 16 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Galilee Galvin
Total US births 648911
Most in one year 6225
Babies in 2025 405
Estimated living today 640750
Median age today 628
Peak year 20232008
Best rank 2,757th girls4,044th boys
Rank in 2025 3,712th12,008th
First recorded 20011917
Girls / boys 648 / 00 / 911

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 Galvins alive today are over 28; half the Galilees are over 6. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

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

Country Galilee Galvin
France 20 Galilée30
England and Wales 36

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: Galilee and Galvin.