Humanverse

Alley vs Allie

American parents have registered 56,372 Allies since 1880, against 1,120 Alleys. Allie is still ahead, with 529 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alley against Allie, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alley Allie

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

Allie 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 1999, when Alley had 46 and Allie had 845.

Side by side

  Alley Allie
Total US births 1,12056,372
Most in one year 661,637
Babies in 2025 8529
Estimated living today 1,10038,000
Median age today 1917
Peak year 20062010
Best rank 2,701st girls189th girls
Rank in 2025 10,917th569th
First recorded 19141880
Girls / boys 1,078 / 4253,251 / 3,121

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 Alleys alive today are over 19; half the Allies are over 17. That is 2 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: Alley and Allie.