Humanverse

Magdalyn vs Maggie

American parents have registered 123,360 Maggies since 1880, against 651 Magdalyns. Maggie is still ahead, with 1,041 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Magdalyn against Maggie, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Magdalyn Maggie

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

Maggie 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 2018, when Magdalyn had 31 and Maggie had 1,128.

Side by side

  Magdalyn Maggie
Total US births 651123,360
Most in one year 321,874
Babies in 2025 51,041
Estimated living today 64067,000
Median age today 1624
Peak year 20102007
Best rank 4,494th girls181st girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd294th
First recorded 19131880
Girls / boys 651 / 0123,078 / 282

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 Maggies alive today are over 24; half the Magdalyns are over 16. That is 8 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: Magdalyn and Maggie.