Humanverse

Renee vs Renisha

American parents have registered 187,513 Renees since 1880, against 735 Renishas. Renee is still ahead, with 223 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Renee against Renisha, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Renee Renisha

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

Renee has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1889 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1994, when Renee had 1,078 and Renisha had 41.

Side by side

  Renee Renisha
Total US births 187,513735
Most in one year 6,04541
Babies in 2025 223under 5
Estimated living today 163,000720
Median age today 5636
Peak year 19641993
Best rank 71st girls2,882nd girls
Rank in 2025 1,098thunranked
First recorded 18891971
Girls / boys 185,896 / 1,617735 / 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 Renees alive today are over 56; half the Renishas are over 36. That is 20 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: Renee and Renisha.