Elspeth vs Elsy

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Elspeth Elsy

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 75 years in which either name was published, Elsy for 41 years and Elspeth for 34 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

• 1914–1968 Elspeth ahead
• 1969–1970 Elsy ahead
• 1971–1977 Elspeth ahead
• 1978–1979 Elsy ahead
• 1981–1988 Elspeth ahead
• 1989–2025 Elsy ahead

Side by side

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 Elspeths alive today are over 28; half the Elsys are over 13. That is 15 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

• Elsy vs Elsie
• Elspeth vs Elsie
• Elspeth vs Elsa
• Elspeth vs Elson
• Elspeth vs Elston
• Elspeth vs Elsworth
• Elsy vs Elsa
• Elsy vs Elson