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Rosa vs Rosellen

American parents have registered 178,588 Rosas since 1880, against 795 Rosellens. Rosa is still ahead, with 441 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rosa against Rosellen, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rosa Rosellen

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

Rosa has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1949, when Rosa had 1,942 and Rosellen had 25.

Side by side

  Rosa Rosellen
Total US births 178,588795
Most in one year 2,24525
Babies in 2025 441under 5
Estimated living today 92,000420
Median age today 5470
Peak year 19251949
Best rank 125th girls1,917th girls
Rank in 2025 652ndunranked
First recorded 18801915
Girls / boys 177,415 / 1,173795 / 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 Rosellens alive today are over 70; half the Rosas are over 54. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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