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Wilbern vs Wilma

American parents have registered 140,855 Wilmas since 1880, against 578 Wilberns. Wilma is still ahead, with 41 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wilbern against Wilma, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wilbern Wilma

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

Wilma 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 1967, when Wilbern had 5 and Wilma had 281.

Side by side

  Wilbern Wilma
Total US births 578140,855
Most in one year 274,202
Babies in 2025 under 541
Estimated living today 8038,000
Median age today 7877
Peak year 19231925
Best rank 1,420th boys62nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,645th
First recorded 19121880
Girls / boys 0 / 578140,101 / 754

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.

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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Wilbern and Wilma.