Humanverse

Lucero vs Lucy

American parents have registered 237,613 Lucys since 1880, against 7,947 Luceros. Lucy is still ahead, with 6,184 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lucero against Lucy, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lucero Lucy

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

Lucy 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 1994, when Lucero had 350 and Lucy had 536.

Side by side

  Lucero Lucy
Total US births 7,947237,613
Most in one year 3506,184
Babies in 2025 1476,184
Estimated living today 7,800135,000
Median age today 2214
Peak year 19942025
Best rank 647th girls24th girls
Rank in 2025 1,512th24th
First recorded 19611880
Girls / boys 7,729 / 218236,969 / 644

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 Luceros alive today are over 22; half the Lucys are over 14. That is 8 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: Lucero and Lucy.