Humanverse

Elgie vs Elgin

American parents have registered 4,002 Elgins since 1880, against 1,343 Elgies. Elgin is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Elgie against Elgin, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Elgie Elgin

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 138 years in which either name was published, Elgin for 122 years and Elgie for 16 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.

Side by side

  Elgie Elgin
Total US births 1,3434,002
Most in one year 4478
Babies in 2025 under 57
Estimated living today 2702,200
Median age today 7547
Peak year 19181920
Best rank 1,231st boys805th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked9,714th
First recorded 18841886
Girls / boys 529 / 81443 / 3,959

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 Elgies alive today are over 75; half the Elgins are over 47. That is 28 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

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Elgie and Elgin.