Humanverse

Ezekiel vs Ezell

American parents have registered 83,657 Ezekiels since 1880, against 3,654 Ezells. Ezekiel is still ahead, with 5,098 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ezekiel against Ezell, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ezekiel Ezell

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 146 years in which either name was published, Ezekiel for 104 years and Ezell for 42 years. The lead changed hands 24 times.

17 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Ezekiel Ezell
Total US births 83,6573,654
Most in one year 6,05871
Babies in 2025 5,098under 5
Estimated living today 81,0001,600
Median age today 761
Peak year 20221951
Best rank 48th boys892nd boys
Rank in 2025 61stunranked
First recorded 18801897
Girls / boys 52 / 83,605411 / 3,243

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 Ezells alive today are over 61; half the Ezekiels are over 7. That is 54 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: Ezekiel and Ezell.