Humanverse

Rilla vs Rilynn

American parents have registered 3,730 Rilynns since 1880, against 2,659 Rillas. Rilynn is still ahead, with 131 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rilla against Rilynn, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rilla Rilynn

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 120 years in which either name was published, Rilla for 94 years and Rilynn for 26 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Rilla Rilynn
Total US births 2,6593,730
Most in one year 56264
Babies in 2025 7131
Estimated living today 6403,700
Median age today 719
Peak year 19142017
Best rank 769th girls1,009th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932nd1,643rd
First recorded 18801999
Girls / boys 2,659 / 03,660 / 70

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 Rillas alive today are over 71; half the Rilynns are over 9. That is 62 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: Rilla and Rilynn.