Humanverse

Halie vs Halley

American parents have registered 7,409 Halies since 1880, against 4,238 Halleys. But in 2025 it was Halley that was commoner, 43 babies to 6.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Halie against Halley, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Halie Halley

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 82 years in which either name was published, Halley for 49 years and Halie for 33 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Halie Halley
Total US births 7,4094,238
Most in one year 464355
Babies in 2025 643
Estimated living today 7,3004,100
Median age today 2627
Peak year 20001986
Best rank 561st girls580th girls
Rank in 2025 13,208th3,517th
First recorded 18991910
Girls / boys 7,409 / 04,112 / 126

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.

Both names abroad

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

Country Halie Halley
England and Wales 399
Scotland 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: Halie and Halley.