Humanverse

Lyrae vs Lyric

American parents have registered 25,552 Lyrics since 1880, against 40 Lyraes. Lyric is still ahead, with 583 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lyrae against Lyric, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lyrae Lyric

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 51 years in which either name was published, Lyric for 47 years and Lyrae for 4 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Lyrae Lyric
Total US births 4025,552
Most in one year 161,480
Babies in 2025 under 5583
Estimated living today 4025,000
Median age today 6212
Peak year 19622014
Best rank 3,161st girls271st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked640th
First recorded 19621928
Girls / boys 40 / 020,875 / 4,677

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 Lyraes alive today are over 62; half the Lyrics are over 12. That is 50 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: Lyrae and Lyric.