Humanverse

Truett vs Truly

American parents have registered 4,532 Truetts since 1880, against 1,097 Trulys. Truett is still ahead, with 586 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Truett against Truly, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Truett Truly

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 109 years in which either name was published, Truett for 97 years and Truly for 12 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.

11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Truett Truly
Total US births 4,5321,097
Most in one year 58661
Babies in 2025 58661
Estimated living today 4,0001,000
Median age today 49
Peak year 20252025
Best rank 518th boys2,778th girls
Rank in 2025 518th2,778th
First recorded 19121915
Girls / boys 48 / 4,4841,092 / 5

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 Trulys alive today are over 9; half the Truetts are over 4. That is 5 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: Truett and Truly.