Humanverse

Velinda vs Velvet

American parents have registered 3,101 Velvets since 1880, against 896 Velindas. Velvet is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Velinda against Velvet, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Velinda Velvet

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 85 years in which either name was published, Velvet for 71 years and Velinda for 14 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Velinda Velvet
Total US births 8963,101
Most in one year 45332
Babies in 2025 under 512
Estimated living today 7702,800
Median age today 6254
Peak year 19581961
Best rank 1,588th girls541st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked8,362nd
First recorded 19421920
Girls / boys 896 / 03,096 / 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 Velindas alive today are over 62; half the Velvets are over 54. That is 8 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: Velinda and Velvet.