Humanverse

Etta vs Ettamae

American parents have registered 43,291 Ettas since 1880, against 101 Ettamaes. Etta is still ahead, with 281 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Etta against Ettamae, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Etta Ettamae

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

Etta 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 2022, when Etta had 256 and Ettamae had 6.

Side by side

  Etta Ettamae
Total US births 43,291101
Most in one year 80311
Babies in 2025 281under 5
Estimated living today 12,0008
Median age today 643
Peak year 19201916
Best rank 230th girls2,658th girls
Rank in 2025 928thunranked
First recorded 18801916
Girls / boys 43,268 / 23101 / 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 Ettas alive today are over 64; half the Ettamaes are over 3. That is 61 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: Etta and Ettamae.