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Grisel vs Griselda

American parents have registered 9,185 Griseldas since 1880, against 1,678 Grisels. Griselda is still ahead, with 47 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Grisel against Griselda, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Grisel Griselda

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

Griselda has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1906 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1984, when Grisel had 211 and Griselda had 241.

Side by side

  Grisel Griselda
Total US births 1,6789,185
Most in one year 211307
Babies in 2025 747
Estimated living today 1,6008,800
Median age today 4036
Peak year 19841993
Best rank 784th girls697th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932nd3,296th
First recorded 19541906
Girls / boys 1,671 / 79,124 / 61

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 Grisels alive today are over 40; half the Griseldas are over 36. That is 4 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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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