Humanverse

Arline vs Arlita

American parents have registered 17,626 Arlines since 1880, against 216 Arlitas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arline against Arlita, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arline Arlita

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

Arline has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 2023. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1963, when Arline had 42 and Arlita had 11.

Side by side

  Arline Arlita
Total US births 17,626216
Most in one year 67712
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 3,800120
Median age today 7970
Peak year 19241932
Best rank 253rd girls2,490th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18831922
Girls / boys 17,590 / 36216 / 0

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 Arlines alive today are over 79; half the Arlitas are over 70. That is 9 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: Arline and Arlita.