Humanverse

Luciel vs Lucy

American parents have registered 237,613 Lucys since 1880, against 592 Luciels. Lucy is still ahead, with 6,184 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Luciel against Lucy, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Luciel Lucy

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

Lucy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1910, when Luciel had 18 and Lucy had 1,289.

Side by side

  Luciel Lucy
Total US births 592237,613
Most in one year 356,184
Babies in 2025 under 56,184
Estimated living today 40135,000
Median age today 8314
Peak year 19152025
Best rank 1,153rd girls24th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked24th
First recorded 19001880
Girls / boys 581 / 11236,969 / 644

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 Luciels alive today are over 83; half the Lucys are over 14. That is 69 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: Luciel and Lucy.