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Whitlee vs Whitney

American parents have registered 103,657 Whitneys since 1880, against 943 Whitlees. Whitney is still ahead, with 251 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Whitlee against Whitney, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Whitlee Whitney

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

Whitney has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1884 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Whitlee had 56 and Whitney had 251.

Side by side

  Whitlee Whitney
Total US births 943103,657
Most in one year 569,781
Babies in 2025 56251
Estimated living today 94099,000
Median age today 936
Peak year 20231986
Best rank 3,014th girls32nd girls
Rank in 2025 3,211th1,043rd
First recorded 19881884
Girls / boys 930 / 1397,663 / 5,994

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 Whitneys alive today are over 36; half the Whitlees are over 9. That is 27 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: Whitlee and Whitney.