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Rae vs Raelee

American parents have registered 24,420 Raes since 1880, against 1,914 Raelees. Rae is still ahead, with 176 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rae against Raelee, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rae Raelee

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 146 years in which either name was published, Rae for 141 years and Raelee for 5 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Rae Raelee
Total US births 24,4201,914
Most in one year 412104
Babies in 2025 17659
Estimated living today 15,0001,900
Median age today 5711
Peak year 19562015
Best rank 453rd girls1,937th girls
Rank in 2025 1,299th2,859th
First recorded 18801969
Girls / boys 23,460 / 9601,914 / 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 Raes alive today are over 57; half the Raelees are over 11. That is 46 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: Rae and Raelee.