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Arnold vs Arnulfo

American parents have registered 104,396 Arnolds since 1880, against 6,316 Arnulfos. Arnold is still ahead, with 120 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arnold against Arnulfo, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arnold Arnulfo

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

Arnold 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 2006, when Arnold had 133 and Arnulfo had 76.

Side by side

  Arnold Arnulfo
Total US births 104,3966,316
Most in one year 2,031119
Babies in 2025 12029
Estimated living today 38,0004,900
Median age today 6539
Peak year 19241992
Best rank 95th boys987th boys
Rank in 2025 1,477th3,757th
First recorded 18801909
Girls / boys 550 / 103,8460 / 6,316

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 Arnolds alive today are over 65; half the Arnulfos are over 39. That is 26 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: Arnold and Arnulfo.