Humanverse

Novalee vs Novalynn

American parents have registered 4,567 Novalees since 1880, against 865 Novalynns. Novalee is still ahead, with 261 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Novalee against Novalynn, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Novalee Novalynn

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

Novalee has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1962 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Novalee had 261 and Novalynn had 116.

Side by side

  Novalee Novalynn
Total US births 4,567865
Most in one year 379116
Babies in 2025 261116
Estimated living today 4,500860
Median age today 64
Peak year 20242025
Best rank 742nd girls1,747th girls
Rank in 2025 975th1,747th
First recorded 19622011
Girls / boys 4,567 / 0865 / 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 Novalees alive today are over 6; half the Novalynns are over 4. That is 2 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: Novalee and Novalynn.