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Pamela vs Pamie

American parents have registered 596,462 Pamelas since 1880, against 28 Pamies. Pamela is still ahead, with 82 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pamela against Pamie, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pamela Pamie

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

Pamela has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1895 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1970, when Pamela had 12,958 and Pamie had 6.

Side by side

  Pamela Pamie
Total US births 596,46228
Most in one year 27,3989
Babies in 2025 82under 5
Estimated living today 493,00020
Median age today 6565
Peak year 19541959
Best rank 12th girls4,300th girls
Rank in 2025 2,239thunranked
First recorded 18951959
Girls / boys 595,076 / 1,38628 / 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.

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