Humanverse

Gwendalyn vs Gwenyth

American parents have registered 3,268 Gwenyths since 1880, against 1,207 Gwendalyns. Gwenyth is still ahead, with 56 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gwendalyn against Gwenyth, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gwendalyn Gwenyth

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 92 years in which either name was published, Gwenyth for 50 years and Gwendalyn for 42 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Gwendalyn Gwenyth
Total US births 1,2073,268
Most in one year 48176
Babies in 2025 1756
Estimated living today 1,2003,100
Median age today 1914
Peak year 20082013
Best rank 3,420th girls1,328th girls
Rank in 2025 6,546th2,957th
First recorded 19401921
Girls / boys 1,207 / 03,268 / 0

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 Gwendalyns alive today are over 19; half the Gwenyths are over 14. That is 5 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: Gwendalyn and Gwenyth.