Leman vs Lemon

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Leman Lemon

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 112 years in which either name was published, Lemon for 88 years and Leman for 24 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.

• 1882–1935 Lemon ahead
• 1936–1939 Leman ahead
• 1940–1956 Lemon ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1957–1959 Leman ahead
• 1963–1971 Lemon ahead, apart from one short spell
• 1974–1990 Leman ahead
• 2014–2025 Lemon ahead

8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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 Lemans alive today are over 64; half the Lemons are over 8. That is 56 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

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