Humanverse

Mabel vs Mabelene

American parents have registered 142,693 Mabels since 1880, against 61 Mabelenes. Mabel is still ahead, with 1,522 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mabel against Mabelene, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mabel Mabelene

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

Mabel 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 1959, when Mabel had 140 and Mabelene had 6.

Side by side

  Mabel Mabelene
Total US births 142,69361
Most in one year 3,69610
Babies in 2025 1,522under 5
Estimated living today 22,00030
Median age today 1375
Peak year 19151937
Best rank 62nd girls2,735th girls
Rank in 2025 201stunranked
First recorded 18801927
Girls / boys 142,284 / 40961 / 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 Mabelenes alive today are over 75; half the Mabels are over 13. That is 62 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: Mabel and Mabelene.