Humanverse

Leland vs Lelar

American parents have registered 58,556 Lelands since 1880, against 629 Lelars. Leland is still ahead, with 626 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leland against Lelar, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leland Lelar

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

Leland 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 1887, when Leland had 20 and Lelar had 10.

Side by side

  Leland Lelar
Total US births 58,556629
Most in one year 1,03521
Babies in 2025 626under 5
Estimated living today 33,00040
Median age today 2380
Peak year 20071924
Best rank 315th boys1,926th girls
Rank in 2025 494thunranked
First recorded 18801883
Girls / boys 557 / 57,999629 / 0

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 Lelars alive today are over 80; half the Lelands are over 23. That is 57 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: Leland and Lelar.