Humanverse

Margaret vs Maryelizabeth

American parents have registered 1,268,519 Margarets since 1880, against 2,094 Maryelizabeths. Margaret is still ahead, with 2,436 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Margaret against Maryelizabeth, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Margaret Maryelizabeth

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

Margaret 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 2008, when Margaret had 1,865 and Maryelizabeth had 41.

Side by side

  Margaret Maryelizabeth
Total US births 1,268,5192,094
Most in one year 28,52153
Babies in 2025 2,43612
Estimated living today 484,0001,800
Median age today 6832
Peak year 19212001
Best rank 4th girls2,766th girls
Rank in 2025 112th8,362nd
First recorded 18801906
Girls / boys 1,264,774 / 3,7452,094 / 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 Margarets alive today are over 68; half the Maryelizabeths are over 32. That is 36 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: Margaret and Maryelizabeth.