Valencia vs Valery
American parents have registered 12,209 Valencias since 1880, against 8,932 Valerys. But in 2025 it was Valery that was commoner, 371 babies to 118.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Valencia Valery
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 107 years in which either name was published, Valencia for 68 years and Valery for 39 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.
- 1922–1925 Valery ahead
- 1926–1936 Valencia ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1937–1946 Valery ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1950–2001 Valencia ahead
- 2002–2025 Valery ahead
10 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Valencia | Valery | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 12,209 | 8,932 |
| Most in one year | 261 | 395 |
| Babies in 2025 | 118 | 371 |
| Estimated living today | 11,000 | 8,600 |
| Median age today | 39 | 15 |
| Peak year | 1970 | 2006 |
| Best rank | 633rd girls | 716th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 1,721st | 743rd |
| First recorded | 1919 | 1914 |
| Girls / boys | 12,198 / 11 | 8,825 / 107 |
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 Valencias alive today are over 39; half the Valerys are over 15. That is 24 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Valencia the District of Columbia (4.3×), Georgia (3.9×), Alabama (3.5×)
- Valery Florida (3.3×), California (2.9×), Texas (2.4×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Valencia | Valery |
|---|---|---|
| France | 80 | 6,075 |
| England and Wales | 446 | 23 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Valencia and Valery.