Humanverse

Mariah vs Marriah

American parents have registered 115,279 Mariahs since 1880, against 702 Marriahs. Mariah is still ahead, with 693 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mariah against Marriah, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mariah Marriah

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

Mariah 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 1974, when Mariah had 118 and Marriah had 5.

Side by side

  Mariah Marriah
Total US births 115,279702
Most in one year 5,45449
Babies in 2025 693under 5
Estimated living today 112,000690
Median age today 2427
Peak year 19961995
Best rank 63rd girls2,552nd girls
Rank in 2025 447thunranked
First recorded 18801974
Girls / boys 115,096 / 183702 / 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 Marriahs alive today are over 27; half the Mariahs are over 24. That is 3 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: Mariah and Marriah.