Humanverse

Halle vs Hally

American parents have registered 16,657 Halles since 1880, against 726 Hallys. Halle is still ahead, with 491 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Halle against Hally, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Halle Hally

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 73 years in which either name was published, Halle for 63 years and Hally for 10 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Halle Hally
Total US births 16,657726
Most in one year 97129
Babies in 2025 49119
Estimated living today 16,000700
Median age today 1925
Peak year 20022000
Best rank 316th girls4,185th girls
Rank in 2025 595th6,116th
First recorded 19481916
Girls / boys 16,651 / 6721 / 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 Hallys alive today are over 25; half the Halles are over 19. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

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

Country Halle Hally
England and Wales 4,01728

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: Halle and Hally.