Love vs Lovey
American parents have registered 5,785 Loves since 1880, against 859 Loveys. Love is still ahead, with 290 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Love Lovey
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 142 years in which either name was published, Love for 122 years and Lovey for 20 years. The lead changed hands 24 times.
- 1884–1951 Love ahead, apart from 3 short spells
- 1952–1961 Lovey ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1964–2025 Love ahead
18 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Love | Lovey | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 5,785 | 859 |
| Most in one year | 418 | 22 |
| Babies in 2025 | 290 | 22 |
| Estimated living today | 4,700 | 380 |
| Median age today | 8 | 40 |
| Peak year | 2022 | 1925 |
| Best rank | 750th girls | 1,847th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 955th | 5,554th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1883 |
| Girls / boys | 4,797 / 988 | 859 / 0 |
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 Loveys alive today are over 40; half the Loves are over 8. That is 32 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: Love and Lovey.