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Weslie vs Westley

American parents have registered 10,184 Westleys since 1880, against 1,023 Weslies. Westley is still ahead, with 462 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Weslie against Westley, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Weslie Westley

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

Westley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1887 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1963, when Weslie had 17 and Westley had 28.

Side by side

  Weslie Westley
Total US births 1,02310,184
Most in one year 88462
Babies in 2025 86462
Estimated living today 8808,900
Median age today 917
Peak year 20242025
Best rank 2,248th girls619th boys
Rank in 2025 2,326th619th
First recorded 19141887
Girls / boys 628 / 39565 / 10,119

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 Westleys alive today are over 17; half the Weslies are over 9. 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: Weslie and Westley.