Humanverse

Love vs Lovetta

American parents have registered 5,785 Loves since 1880, against 1,008 Lovettas. Love is still ahead, with 290 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Love Lovetta

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 143 years in which either name was published, Love for 108 years and Lovetta for 35 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Love Lovetta
Total US births 5,7851,008
Most in one year 41825
Babies in 2025 2905
Estimated living today 4,700520
Median age today 865
Peak year 20221928
Best rank 750th girls1,637th girls
Rank in 2025 955th14,942nd
First recorded 18801910
Girls / boys 4,797 / 9881,008 / 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 Lovettas alive today are over 65; half the Loves are over 8. 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: Love and Lovetta.