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Marjie vs Mary

American parents have registered 4,156,654 Marys since 1880, against 972 Marjies. Mary is still ahead, with 2,230 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marjie against Mary, 1880 to 2025 0 20k 40k 60k 80k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marjie Mary

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

Mary 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 1958, when Marjie had 29 and Mary had 55,989.

Side by side

  Marjie Mary
Total US births 9724,156,654
Most in one year 3474,171
Babies in 2025 under 52,230
Estimated living today 4101.7 million
Median age today 7069
Peak year 19241921
Best rank 1,409th girls1st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked125th
First recorded 19141880
Girls / boys 972 / 04,141,481 / 15,173

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.

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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Marjie and Mary.