Tela vs Telly
American parents have registered 1,609 Tellys since 1880, against 700 Telas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Tela Telly
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 69 years in which either name was published, Tela for 35 years and Telly for 34 years. The lead changed hands 15 times.
- 1894–1971 Tela ahead
- 1972–1983 Telly ahead
- 1984–1992 Tela ahead
- 1993–2024 Telly ahead, apart from 3 short spells
9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Tela | Telly | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 700 | 1,609 |
| Most in one year | 45 | 312 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 660 | 1,500 |
| Median age today | 38 | 49 |
| Peak year | 1985 | 1974 |
| Best rank | 2,253rd girls | 468th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1894 | 1967 |
| Girls / boys | 693 / 7 | 82 / 1,527 |
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 Tellys alive today are over 49; half the Telas are over 38. That is 11 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: Tela and Telly.