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Rosemary vs Rosiland

American parents have registered 163,523 Rosemarys since 1880, against 681 Rosilands. Rosemary is still ahead, with 1,222 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rosemary against Rosiland, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rosemary Rosiland

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

Rosemary has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1968, when Rosemary had 882 and Rosiland had 28.

Side by side

  Rosemary Rosiland
Total US births 163,523681
Most in one year 4,54233
Babies in 2025 1,222under 5
Estimated living today 90,000570
Median age today 6763
Peak year 19471962
Best rank 80th girls2,031st girls
Rank in 2025 251stunranked
First recorded 18821942
Girls / boys 163,165 / 358681 / 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 Rosemarys alive today are over 67; half the Rosilands are over 63. That is 4 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: Rosemary and Rosiland.