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Mishell vs Misty

American parents have registered 84,891 Mistys since 1880, against 516 Mishells. Misty is still ahead, with 35 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mishell against Misty, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mishell Misty

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

Misty has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1944 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Mishell had 11 and Misty had 40.

Side by side

  Mishell Misty
Total US births 51684,891
Most in one year 176,333
Babies in 2025 535
Estimated living today 50081,000
Median age today 2746
Peak year 20021977
Best rank 6,392nd girls40th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd4,067th
First recorded 19571944
Girls / boys 516 / 084,654 / 237

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 Mistys alive today are over 46; half the Mishells are over 27. That is 19 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: Mishell and Misty.