Humanverse

Moriah vs Morrell

American parents have registered 13,507 Moriahs since 1880, against 692 Morrells. Moriah is still ahead, with 221 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Moriah against Morrell, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Moriah Morrell

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

Of the 108 years in which either name was published, Moriah for 57 years and Morrell for 51 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Moriah Morrell
Total US births 13,507692
Most in one year 51717
Babies in 2025 221under 5
Estimated living today 13,000350
Median age today 2449
Peak year 19921919
Best rank 477th girls1,882nd boys
Rank in 2025 1,092ndunranked
First recorded 19681914
Girls / boys 13,399 / 1080 / 692

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 Morrells alive today are over 49; half the Moriahs are over 24. That is 25 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: Moriah and Morrell.