Humanverse

Heide vs Heiress

American parents have registered 2,103 Heides since 1880, against 759 Heiresses. But in 2025 it was Heiress that was commoner, 45 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Heide against Heiress, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Heide Heiress

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 77 years in which either name was published, Heide for 58 years and Heiress for 19 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Heide Heiress
Total US births 2,103759
Most in one year 8495
Babies in 2025 under 545
Estimated living today 1,900750
Median age today 556
Peak year 19682019
Best rank 1,177th girls2,011th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked3,389th
First recorded 19482004
Girls / boys 2,103 / 0759 / 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 Heides alive today are over 55; half the Heiresses are over 6. That is 49 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: Heide and Heiress.