Humanverse

Jil vs Jiles

American parents have registered 639 Jileses since 1880, against 559 Jils. Jiles is still ahead, with 8 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jil against Jiles, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jil Jiles

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 101 years in which either name was published, Jiles for 66 years and Jil for 35 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Jil Jiles
Total US births 559639
Most in one year 3619
Babies in 2025 under 58
Estimated living today 480310
Median age today 6338
Peak year 19571923
Best rank 1,808th girls1,816th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked8,910th
First recorded 19451892
Girls / boys 559 / 00 / 639

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 Jils alive today are over 63; half the Jileses are over 38. That is 25 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: Jil and Jiles.