Humanverse

Hollis vs Holmes

American parents have registered 21,512 Hollises since 1880, against 610 Holmeses. Hollis is still ahead, with 472 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Hollis Holmes

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

Hollis has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1880, when Hollis had 7 and Holmes had 6.

Side by side

  Hollis Holmes
Total US births 21,512610
Most in one year 47224
Babies in 2025 472under 5
Estimated living today 12,000130
Median age today 3372
Peak year 19211915
Best rank 343rd boys1,372nd boys
Rank in 2025 893rdunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 5,498 / 16,0140 / 610

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 Holmeses alive today are over 72; half the Hollises are over 33. That is 39 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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