Humanverse

Rosiland vs Ross

American parents have registered 82,293 Rosses since 1880, against 681 Rosilands. Ross is still ahead, with 122 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rosiland against Ross, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rosiland Ross

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

Ross 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 1943, when Rosiland had 20 and Ross had 584.

Side by side

  Rosiland Ross
Total US births 68182,293
Most in one year 331,898
Babies in 2025 under 5122
Estimated living today 57056,000
Median age today 6343
Peak year 19621985
Best rank 2,031st girls147th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,459th
First recorded 19421880
Girls / boys 681 / 0421 / 81,872

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 Rosilands alive today are over 63; half the Rosses are over 43. 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: Rosiland and Ross.