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Earle vs Earnell

American parents have registered 11,790 Earles since 1880, against 22 Earnells. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Earle against Earnell, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Earle Earnell

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

Earle has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2014. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1947, when Earle had 148 and Earnell had 12.

Side by side

  Earle Earnell
Total US births 11,79022
Most in one year 35812
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 2,60014
Median age today 6978
Peak year 19181947
Best rank 293rd boys3,096th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801947
Girls / boys 285 / 11,5055 / 17

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 Earnells alive today are over 78; half the Earles are over 69. That is 9 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: Earle and Earnell.