Humanverse

Glenda vs Glenna

American parents have registered 109,522 Glendas since 1880, against 25,629 Glennas. Glenda is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Glenda against Glenna, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Glenda Glenna

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 146 years in which either name was published, Glenda for 93 years and Glenna for 53 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Glenda Glenna
Total US births 109,52225,629
Most in one year 4,224645
Babies in 2025 207
Estimated living today 77,00012,000
Median age today 7172
Peak year 19501951
Best rank 87th girls310th girls
Rank in 2025 5,917th11,932nd
First recorded 19001880
Girls / boys 109,227 / 29525,624 / 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.

Where each one is strongest

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: Glenda and Glenna.