Humanverse

Virgil vs Virgle

American parents have registered 73,453 Virgils since 1880, against 2,229 Virgles. Virgil is still ahead, with 129 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Virgil against Virgle, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Virgil Virgle

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

Virgil has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1886, when Virgil had 79 and Virgle had 7.

Side by side

  Virgil Virgle
Total US births 73,4532,229
Most in one year 1,86992
Babies in 2025 129under 5
Estimated living today 23,000420
Median age today 6474
Peak year 19211924
Best rank 98th boys677th boys
Rank in 2025 1,409thunranked
First recorded 18801886
Girls / boys 1,444 / 72,00933 / 2,196

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 Virgles alive today are over 74; half the Virgils are over 64. That is 10 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: Virgil and Virgle.