Humanverse

Arne vs Arnez

American parents have registered 2,854 Arnes since 1880, against 585 Arnezes. But in 2025 it was Arnez that was commoner, 8 babies to 7.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arne against Arnez, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arne Arnez

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 122 years in which either name was published, Arne for 92 years and Arnez for 30 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Arne Arnez
Total US births 2,854585
Most in one year 6939
Babies in 2025 78
Estimated living today 1,300570
Median age today 6317
Peak year 19162007
Best rank 724th boys2,974th boys
Rank in 2025 9,714th8,910th
First recorded 19031960
Girls / boys 0 / 2,8545 / 580

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 Arnes alive today are over 63; half the Arnezes are over 17. That is 46 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Arne Arnez
England and Wales 796

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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