Humanverse

Mabelene vs Mable

American parents have registered 53,466 Mables since 1880, against 61 Mabelenes. Mable is still ahead, with 73 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mabelene against Mable, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mabelene Mable

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

Mable 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 Mabelene had 6 and Mable had 164.

Side by side

  Mabelene Mable
Total US births 6153,466
Most in one year 101,629
Babies in 2025 under 573
Estimated living today 309,200
Median age today 7577
Peak year 19371922
Best rank 2,735th girls152nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,438th
First recorded 19271880
Girls / boys 61 / 053,251 / 215

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 Mables alive today are over 77; half the Mabelenes are over 75. That is 2 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: Mabelene and Mable.