Humanverse

Valdean vs Valeria

American parents have registered 80,157 Valerias since 1880, against 11 Valdeans. Valeria is still ahead, with 1,835 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Valdean against Valeria, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Valdean Valeria

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

Valeria has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1941, when Valdean had 5 and Valeria had 93.

Side by side

  Valdean Valeria
Total US births 1180,157
Most in one year 64,212
Babies in 2025 under 51,835
Estimated living today 373,000
Median age today 8417
Peak year 19332008
Best rank 3,268th boys73rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked162nd
First recorded 19331881
Girls / boys 5 / 680,052 / 105

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 Valdeans alive today are over 84; half the Valerias are over 17. That is 67 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: Valdean and Valeria.