Humanverse

Glenda vs Glennie

American parents have registered 109,522 Glendas since 1880, against 2,225 Glennies. Glenda is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Glenda against Glennie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Glenda Glennie

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 144 years in which either name was published, Glenda for 114 years and Glennie for 30 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Glenda Glennie
Total US births 109,5222,225
Most in one year 4,22463
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 77,000480
Median age today 7176
Peak year 19501916
Best rank 87th girls915th girls
Rank in 2025 5,917thunranked
First recorded 19001881
Girls / boys 109,227 / 2951,931 / 294

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 Glennies alive today are over 76; half the Glendas are over 71. That is 5 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: Glenda and Glennie.