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Nola vs Noland

American parents have registered 26,271 Nolas since 1880, against 1,778 Nolands. Nola is still ahead, with 331 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nola against Noland, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nola Noland

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

Nola 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 1992, when Nola had 25 and Noland had 21.

Side by side

  Nola Noland
Total US births 26,2711,778
Most in one year 53737
Babies in 2025 33123
Estimated living today 14,0001,300
Median age today 1835
Peak year 20202021
Best rank 553rd girls3,180th boys
Rank in 2025 821st4,396th
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 26,262 / 90 / 1,778

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 Nolands alive today are over 35; half the Nolas are over 18. That is 17 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: Nola and Noland.