Humanverse

Liisa vs Lisa

American parents have registered 970,012 Lisas since 1880, against 427 Liisas. Lisa is still ahead, with 256 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Liisa against Lisa, 1880 to 2025 0 20k 40k 60k 80k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Liisa Lisa

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

Lisa has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1949, when Liisa had 5 and Lisa had 596.

Side by side

  Liisa Lisa
Total US births 427970,012
Most in one year 2860,448
Babies in 2025 under 5256
Estimated living today 380876,000
Median age today 5757
Peak year 19621965
Best rank 2,264th girls1st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked987th
First recorded 19491886
Girls / boys 427 / 0967,229 / 2,783

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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Liisa and Lisa.