Humanverse

Lenice vs Lenore

American parents have registered 22,974 Lenores since 1880, against 517 Lenices. Lenore is still ahead, with 98 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Lenice Lenore

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

Lenore 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 1995, when Lenice had 6 and Lenore had 12.

Side by side

  Lenice Lenore
Total US births 51722,974
Most in one year 14460
Babies in 2025 under 598
Estimated living today 2709,400
Median age today 6367
Peak year 19281926
Best rank 2,381st girls311th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,962nd
First recorded 18991880
Girls / boys 517 / 022,968 / 6

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 Lenores alive today are over 67; half the Lenices are over 63. That is 4 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: Lenice and Lenore.