Humanverse

Magdalena vs Magdiel

American parents have registered 19,783 Magdalenas since 1880, against 634 Magdiels. Magdalena is still ahead, with 320 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Magdalena against Magdiel, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Magdalena Magdiel

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

Magdalena 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 2001, when Magdalena had 270 and Magdiel had 32.

Side by side

  Magdalena Magdiel
Total US births 19,783634
Most in one year 32532
Babies in 2025 32014
Estimated living today 16,000620
Median age today 2918
Peak year 20072005
Best rank 862nd girls3,447th boys
Rank in 2025 849th6,143rd
First recorded 18801974
Girls / boys 19,773 / 1026 / 608

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 Magdalenas alive today are over 29; half the Magdiels are over 18. That is 11 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: Magdalena and Magdiel.