Humanverse

Lige vs Ligia

American parents have registered 1,280 Liges since 1880, against 702 Ligias. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lige against Ligia, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lige Ligia

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

Of the 134 years in which either name was published, Lige for 84 years and Ligia for 50 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Lige Ligia
Total US births 1,280702
Most in one year 3028
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 210650
Median age today 6939
Peak year 19151985
Best rank 1,181st boys3,170th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801918
Girls / boys 0 / 1,280702 / 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 Liges alive today are over 69; half the Ligias are over 39. That is 30 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

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