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Myrle vs Myrna

American parents have registered 31,742 Myrnas since 1880, against 3,108 Myrles. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Myrle Myrna

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 141 years in which either name was published, Myrna for 119 years and Myrle for 22 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Myrle Myrna
Total US births 3,10831,742
Most in one year 1221,808
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 38016,000
Median age today 8174
Peak year 19151938
Best rank 667th girls134th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18841885
Girls / boys 2,405 / 70331,700 / 42

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 Myrles alive today are over 81; half the Myrnas are over 74. That is 7 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: Myrle and Myrna.