Humanverse

Ember vs Emberleigh

American parents have registered 23,072 Embers since 1880, against 1,046 Emberleighs. Ember is still ahead, with 1,988 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ember against Emberleigh, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ember Emberleigh

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

Ember has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1946 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Ember had 1,572 and Emberleigh had 124.

Side by side

  Ember Emberleigh
Total US births 23,0721,046
Most in one year 2,222125
Babies in 2025 1,988108
Estimated living today 23,0001,000
Median age today 64
Peak year 20242023
Best rank 135th girls1,656th girls
Rank in 2025 154th1,844th
First recorded 19462009
Girls / boys 22,646 / 4261,046 / 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 Embers alive today are over 6; half the Emberleighs are over 4. That is 2 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: Ember and Emberleigh.