Humanverse

Blakely vs Blanch

American parents have registered 22,036 Blakelys since 1880, against 6,450 Blanches. Blakely is still ahead, with 1,646 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Blakely against Blanch, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Blakely Blanch

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, Blanch for 89 years and Blakely for 57 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Blakely Blanch
Total US births 22,0366,450
Most in one year 1,905181
Babies in 2025 1,646under 5
Estimated living today 22,000770
Median age today 678
Peak year 20241924
Best rank 158th girls537th girls
Rank in 2025 191stunranked
First recorded 19201880
Girls / boys 20,802 / 1,2346,420 / 30

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 Blanches alive today are over 78; half the Blakelys are over 6. That is 72 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: Blakely and Blanch.