Humanverse

Adean vs Adeline

American parents have registered 80,838 Adelines since 1880, against 116 Adeans. Adeline is still ahead, with 3,864 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Adean Adeline

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

Adeline 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 1942, when Adean had 8 and Adeline had 172.

Side by side

  Adean Adeline
Total US births 11680,838
Most in one year 114,126
Babies in 2025 under 53,864
Estimated living today 4053,000
Median age today 188
Peak year 19212016
Best rank 2,941st girls63rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked59th
First recorded 19211880
Girls / boys 93 / 2380,812 / 26

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 Adeans alive today are over 18; half the Adelines are over 8. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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