Humanverse

Jackelyn vs Jackie

American parents have registered 170,153 Jackies since 1880, against 3,896 Jackelyns. Jackie is still ahead, with 148 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jackelyn against Jackie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jackelyn Jackie

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

Jackie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1899 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2010, when Jackelyn had 128 and Jackie had 179.

Side by side

  Jackelyn Jackie
Total US births 3,896170,153
Most in one year 1935,573
Babies in 2025 6148
Estimated living today 3,800112,000
Median age today 2464
Peak year 20001961
Best rank 1,073rd girls112th girls
Rank in 2025 13,208th2,153rd
First recorded 19431899
Girls / boys 3,896 / 091,253 / 78,900

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 Jackies alive today are over 64; half the Jackelyns are over 24. That is 40 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: Jackelyn and Jackie.