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Loy vs Loye

American parents have registered 4,983 Loys since 1880, against 621 Loyes. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Loy against Loye, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Loy Loye

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

Loy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2021. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1969, when Loy had 16 and Loye had 6.

Side by side

  Loy Loye
Total US births 4,983621
Most in one year 10928
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,700180
Median age today 6977
Peak year 19221933
Best rank 666th boys1,707th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18811907
Girls / boys 872 / 4,111173 / 448

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 Loyes alive today are over 77; half the Loys are over 69. That is 8 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: Loy and Loye.