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Gladstone vs Glady

American parents have registered 543 Gladys since 1880, against 200 Gladstones. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gladstone against Glady, 1880 to 2025 0 6 12 18 24 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gladstone Glady

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 67 years in which either name was published, Glady for 60 years and Gladstone for 7 years. The lead changed hands 12 times.

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

Side by side

  Gladstone Glady
Total US births 200543
Most in one year 1323
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 30180
Median age today 7570
Peak year 19171917
Best rank 2,188th boys1,923rd girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18981901
Girls / boys 0 / 200538 / 5

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 Gladstones alive today are over 75; half the Gladys are over 70. That is 5 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: Gladstone and Glady.