Humanverse

Soul vs Soundra

American parents have registered 783 Souls since 1880, against 153 Soundras. Soul is still ahead, with 96 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Soul against Soundra, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Soul Soundra

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 40 years in which either name was published, Soul for 22 years and Soundra for 18 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Soul Soundra
Total US births 783153
Most in one year 10815
Babies in 2025 96under 5
Estimated living today 780110
Median age today 374
Peak year 20221944
Best rank 2,299th boys2,287th girls
Rank in 2025 2,332ndunranked
First recorded 20001943
Girls / boys 322 / 461153 / 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 Soundras alive today are over 74; half the Souls are over 3. That is 71 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

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