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Eileen vs Eileene

American parents have registered 190,020 Eileens since 1880, against 548 Eileenes. Eileen is still ahead, with 437 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Eileen against Eileene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Eileen Eileene

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

Eileen has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Eileen had 355 and Eileene had 6.

Side by side

  Eileen Eileene
Total US births 190,020548
Most in one year 4,26731
Babies in 2025 437under 5
Estimated living today 105,000150
Median age today 6774
Peak year 19471925
Best rank 91st girls1,466th girls
Rank in 2025 654thunranked
First recorded 18821911
Girls / boys 189,614 / 406548 / 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 Eileenes alive today are over 74; half the Eileens are over 67. That is 7 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: Eileen and Eileene.