Humanverse

Maria vs Maritsa

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 930 Maritsas. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maria against Maritsa, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maria Maritsa

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

Maria 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 2006, when Maria had 5,617 and Maritsa had 37.

Side by side

  Maria Maritsa
Total US births 570,389930
Most in one year 10,19737
Babies in 2025 2,893under 5
Estimated living today 466,000900
Median age today 4531
Peak year 19642006
Best rank 41st girls3,992nd girls
Rank in 2025 87thunranked
First recorded 18801956
Girls / boys 566,111 / 4,278930 / 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 Marias alive today are over 45; half the Maritsas are over 31. That is 14 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: Maria and Maritsa.