Humanverse

Zollie vs Zoltan

American parents have registered 1,024 Zoltans since 1880, against 957 Zollies. Zoltan is still ahead, with 5 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zollie against Zoltan, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zollie Zoltan

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

Of the 131 years in which either name was published, Zoltan for 67 years and Zollie for 64 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Zollie Zoltan
Total US births 9571,024
Most in one year 3225
Babies in 2025 under 55
Estimated living today 210730
Median age today 7234
Peak year 19161967
Best rank 1,459th boys1,540th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked12,008th
First recorded 18841912
Girls / boys 134 / 8230 / 1,024

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 Zollies alive today are over 72; half the Zoltans are over 34. That is 38 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: Zollie and Zoltan.