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Oleander vs Olen

American parents have registered 7,678 Olens since 1880, against 90 Oleanders. Olen is still ahead, with 33 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Oleander against Olen, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Oleander Olen

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

Olen 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 2025, when Oleander had 23 and Olen had 33.

Side by side

  Oleander Olen
Total US births 907,678
Most in one year 23193
Babies in 2025 2333
Estimated living today 902,700
Median age today 256
Peak year 20251922
Best rank 4,396th boys436th boys
Rank in 2025 4,396th3,450th
First recorded 20211880
Girls / boys 13 / 7713 / 7,665

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 Olens alive today are over 56; half the Oleanders are over 2. That is 54 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: Oleander and Olen.