Humanverse

Lota vs Lotus

American parents have registered 2,978 Lotuses since 1880, against 586 Lotas. Lotus is still ahead, with 132 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lota against Lotus, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lota Lotus

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 122 years in which either name was published, Lotus for 92 years and Lota for 30 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Lota Lotus
Total US births 5862,978
Most in one year 20165
Babies in 2025 under 5132
Estimated living today 402,300
Median age today 869
Peak year 19122023
Best rank 1,178th girls1,524th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,818th
First recorded 18811896
Girls / boys 586 / 02,766 / 212

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 Lotas alive today are over 86; half the Lotuses are over 9. That is 77 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: Lota and Lotus.