Humanverse

Loy vs Loyola

American parents have registered 4,983 Loys since 1880, against 617 Loyolas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Loy Loyola

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 123 years in which either name was published, Loy for 121 years and Loyola for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Loy Loyola
Total US births 4,983617
Most in one year 10927
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1,700120
Median age today 6982
Peak year 19221926
Best rank 666th boys1,589th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18811888
Girls / boys 872 / 4,111617 / 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 Loyolas alive today are over 82; half the Loys are over 69. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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