Humanverse

Ebone vs Eboney

American parents have registered 1,182 Ebones since 1880, against 747 Eboneys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ebone against Eboney, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ebone Eboney

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 33 years in which either name was published, Ebone for 23 years and Eboney for 10 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Ebone Eboney
Total US births 1,182747
Most in one year 9846
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,200730
Median age today 3538
Peak year 19931980
Best rank 1,569th girls2,189th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19741974
Girls / boys 1,182 / 0747 / 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 Eboneys alive today are over 38; half the Ebones are over 35. That is 3 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: Ebone and Eboney.