Belia vs Belle
American parents have registered 19,227 Belles since 1880, against 2,058 Belias. Belle is still ahead, with 247 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Belia Belle
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 146 years in which either name was published, Belle for 132 years and Belia for 14 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.
7 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Belia | Belle | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,058 | 19,227 |
| Most in one year | 51 | 407 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 247 |
| Estimated living today | 1,200 | 6,800 |
| Median age today | 63 | 12 |
| Peak year | 1931 | 1915 |
| Best rank | 970th girls | 288th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 1,013th |
| First recorded | 1909 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 2,058 / 0 | 19,227 / 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 Belias alive today are over 63; half the Belles are over 12. That is 51 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Belia Texas (10.5×), Arizona (2.7×), California (1.6×)
- Belle New York (2.4×), Utah (2.3×), North Carolina (1.4×)
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: Belia and Belle.