Humanverse

Elda vs Eldred

American parents have registered 9,012 Eldas since 1880, against 4,040 Eldreds. Elda is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Elda against Eldred, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Elda Eldred

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

Elda has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1966, when Elda had 28 and Eldred had 27.

Side by side

  Elda Eldred
Total US births 9,0124,040
Most in one year 255168
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 2,9001,000
Median age today 5864
Peak year 19161921
Best rank 396th girls572nd boys
Rank in 2025 5,917thunranked
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 8,970 / 42294 / 3,746

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 Eldreds alive today are over 64; half the Eldas are over 58. That is 6 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: Elda and Eldred.