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Glen vs Glennis

American parents have registered 127,054 Glens since 1880, against 2,777 Glennises. Glen is still ahead, with 74 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Glen against Glennis, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Glen Glennis

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

Glen 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 1939, when Glen had 1,447 and Glennis had 74.

Side by side

  Glen Glennis
Total US births 127,0542,777
Most in one year 2,94780
Babies in 2025 74under 5
Estimated living today 65,0001,300
Median age today 6371
Peak year 19571947
Best rank 129th boys1,141st girls
Rank in 2025 2,020thunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 1,348 / 125,7062,056 / 721

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 Glennises alive today are over 71; half the Glens are over 63. That is 8 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: Glen and Glennis.