Humanverse

Mabel vs Mabry

American parents have registered 142,693 Mabels since 1880, against 1,528 Mabrys. Mabel is still ahead, with 1,522 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mabel Mabry

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 2006, when Mabel had 116 and Mabry had 44.

Side by side

  Mabel Mabry
Total US births 142,6931,528
Most in one year 3,69681
Babies in 2025 1,52266
Estimated living today 22,0001,300
Median age today 1310
Peak year 19152017
Best rank 62nd girls2,283rd girls
Rank in 2025 201st2,607th
First recorded 18801908
Girls / boys 142,284 / 4091,315 / 213

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 Mabels alive today are over 13; half the Mabrys are over 10. That is 3 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: Mabel and Mabry.