Humanverse

Wendee vs Wendy

American parents have registered 263,276 Wendys since 1880, against 790 Wendees. Wendy is still ahead, with 165 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wendee against Wendy, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wendee Wendy

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

Wendy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1918 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1983, when Wendee had 15 and Wendy had 2,399.

Side by side

  Wendee Wendy
Total US births 790263,276
Most in one year 4911,259
Babies in 2025 under 5165
Estimated living today 710236,000
Median age today 5556
Peak year 19711967
Best rank 1,805th girls32nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,341st
First recorded 19481918
Girls / boys 790 / 0262,325 / 951

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.

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: Wendee and Wendy.