Pleas vs Pleasant
American parents have registered 831 Pleases since 1880, against 702 Pleasants. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Pleas Pleasant
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 87 years in which either name was published, Pleas for 52 years and Pleasant for 35 years. The lead changed hands 34 times.
- 1880–1888 Pleasant ahead
- 1900–1912 Pleas ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1924–1928 Pleasant ahead
- 1929–1988 Pleas ahead, apart from 3 short spells
27 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Pleas | Pleasant | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 831 | 702 |
| Most in one year | 25 | 25 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 140 | 70 |
| Median age today | 73 | 75 |
| Peak year | 1916 | 1924 |
| Best rank | 1,374th boys | 1,675th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 831 | 73 / 629 |
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 Pleasants alive today are over 75; half the Pleases are over 73. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Compare something else
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pleas and Pleasant.