Humanverse

Jiles vs Jill

American parents have registered 208,572 Jills since 1880, against 639 Jileses. Jill is still ahead, with 21 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jiles Jill

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 120 years in which either name was published, Jill for 109 years and Jiles for 11 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Jiles Jill
Total US births 639208,572
Most in one year 197,886
Babies in 2025 821
Estimated living today 310183,000
Median age today 3857
Peak year 19231966
Best rank 1,816th boys49th girls
Rank in 2025 8,910th5,722nd
First recorded 18921906
Girls / boys 0 / 639208,071 / 501

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 Jills alive today are over 57; half the Jileses are over 38. That is 19 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: Jiles and Jill.