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Ayelene vs Ayesha

American parents have registered 6,696 Ayeshas since 1880, against 38 Ayelenes. Ayesha is still ahead, with 156 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ayelene against Ayesha, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ayelene Ayesha

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

Ayesha has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1950 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2011, when Ayelene had 21 and Ayesha had 123.

Side by side

  Ayelene Ayesha
Total US births 386,696
Most in one year 21178
Babies in 2025 under 5156
Estimated living today 406,600
Median age today 1425
Peak year 20112016
Best rank 6,148th girls1,330th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,396th
First recorded 20111950
Girls / boys 38 / 06,696 / 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 Ayeshas alive today are over 25; half the Ayelenes are over 14. That is 11 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: Ayelene and Ayesha.