Humanverse

Rylann vs Ryleigh

American parents have registered 35,576 Ryleighs since 1880, against 552 Rylanns. Ryleigh is still ahead, with 899 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Rylann Ryleigh

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

Ryleigh has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1986 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Rylann had 23 and Ryleigh had 899.

Side by side

  Rylann Ryleigh
Total US births 55235,576
Most in one year 402,041
Babies in 2025 23899
Estimated living today 55035,000
Median age today 811
Peak year 20162019
Best rank 3,849th girls138th girls
Rank in 2025 6,546th343rd
First recorded 20031986
Girls / boys 464 / 8835,139 / 437

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 Ryleighs alive today are over 11; half the Rylanns are over 8. That is 3 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: Rylann and Ryleigh.