Vennie vs Venus

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Vennie Venus

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 142 years in which either name was published, Venus for 104 years and Vennie for 38 years. The lead changed hands 21 times.

• 1884–1894 Vennie ahead
• 1895–1897 Venus ahead
• 1903–1910 Vennie ahead
• 1918–1921 Venus ahead
• 1924–1926 Vennie ahead
• 1931–1934 Venus ahead
• 1935–1943 Vennie ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1944–2025 Venus ahead

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

Side by side

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 Vennies alive today are over 74; half the Venuses are over 47. That is 27 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Vennie Alabama (7.8×), North Carolina (7.5×), Tennessee (4.7×)
• Venus New York (2.8×), California (2.3×), Illinois (2.0×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

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• Vennie vs Venessa
• Vennie vs Venita
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• Venus vs Venita
• Venus vs Venice