Humanverse

Magalene vs Magaly

American parents have registered 5,288 Magalys since 1880, against 511 Magalenes. Magaly is still ahead, with 53 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Magalene against Magaly, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Magalene Magaly

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 108 years in which either name was published, Magaly for 71 years and Magalene for 37 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Magalene Magaly
Total US births 5115,288
Most in one year 23169
Babies in 2025 under 553
Estimated living today 1805,100
Median age today 7925
Peak year 19292001
Best rank 1,642nd girls1,206th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,067th
First recorded 19121951
Girls / boys 511 / 05,288 / 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 Magalenes alive today are over 79; half the Magalys are over 25. That is 54 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: Magalene and Magaly.