Humanverse

Belinda vs Bell

American parents have registered 73,110 Belindas since 1880, against 2,626 Bells. Belinda is still ahead, with 110 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Belinda against Bell, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Belinda Bell

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, Belinda for 93 years and Bell for 53 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Belinda Bell
Total US births 73,1102,626
Most in one year 3,12563
Babies in 2025 1108
Estimated living today 64,000290
Median age today 6055
Peak year 19611900
Best rank 141st girls423rd girls
Rank in 2025 1,818th10,917th
First recorded 18891880
Girls / boys 72,960 / 1502,496 / 130

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 Belindas alive today are over 60; half the Bells are over 55. That is 5 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: Belinda and Bell.