Humanverse

Orville vs Orvin

American parents have registered 35,220 Orvilles since 1880, against 1,140 Orvins. Orville is still ahead, with 14 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Orville against Orvin, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Orville Orvin

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

Orville 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 2007, when Orville had 9 and Orvin had 6.

Side by side

  Orville Orvin
Total US births 35,2201,140
Most in one year 1,20345
Babies in 2025 14under 5
Estimated living today 6,400250
Median age today 7168
Peak year 19201917
Best rank 134th boys964th boys
Rank in 2025 6,143rdunranked
First recorded 18801890
Girls / boys 155 / 35,0650 / 1,140

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 Orvilles alive today are over 71; half the Orvins are over 68. 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: Orville and Orvin.