Humanverse

Valarie vs Valene

American parents have registered 18,714 Valaries since 1880, against 901 Valenes. Valarie is still ahead, with 48 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Valarie against Valene, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Valarie Valene

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 115 years in which either name was published, Valarie for 113 years and Valene for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Valarie Valene
Total US births 18,714901
Most in one year 64164
Babies in 2025 48under 5
Estimated living today 16,000690
Median age today 5542
Peak year 19641983
Best rank 379th girls1,700th girls
Rank in 2025 3,249thunranked
First recorded 19101910
Girls / boys 18,714 / 0901 / 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 Valaries alive today are over 55; half the Valenes are over 42. That is 13 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: Valarie and Valene.