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Ivorie vs Ivory

American parents have registered 23,114 Ivorys since 1880, against 477 Ivories. Ivory is still ahead, with 840 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ivorie Ivory

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

Ivory 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 2010, when Ivorie had 13 and Ivory had 146.

Side by side

  Ivorie Ivory
Total US births 47723,114
Most in one year 32840
Babies in 2025 32840
Estimated living today 47017,000
Median age today 1121
Peak year 20252025
Best rank 4,352nd girls378th girls
Rank in 2025 4,352nd378th
First recorded 19821880
Girls / boys 477 / 014,546 / 8,568

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 Ivorys alive today are over 21; half the Ivories are over 11. That is 10 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: Ivorie and Ivory.