Morrell vs Morton
American parents have registered 12,341 Mortons since 1880, against 692 Morrells. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Morrell Morton
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 131 years in which either name was published, Morton for 119 years and Morrell for 12 years. The lead changed hands 18 times.
- 1880–2021 Morton ahead, apart from 2 short spells
16 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Morrell | Morton | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 692 | 12,341 |
| Most in one year | 17 | 482 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 350 | 1,700 |
| Median age today | 49 | 76 |
| Peak year | 1919 | 1923 |
| Best rank | 1,882nd boys | 254th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1914 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 692 | 5 / 12,336 |
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 Mortons alive today are over 76; half the Morrells are over 49. That is 27 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: Morrell and Morton.