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Paisley vs Paizley

American parents have registered 65,456 Paisleys since 1880, against 1,439 Paizleys. Paisley is still ahead, with 3,513 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Paisley against Paizley, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Paisley Paizley

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

Paisley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1966 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1991, when Paisley had 58 and Paizley had 7.

Side by side

  Paisley Paizley
Total US births 65,4561,439
Most in one year 5,091117
Babies in 2025 3,51340
Estimated living today 65,0001,400
Median age today 810
Peak year 20152013
Best rank 45th girls1,754th girls
Rank in 2025 67th3,712th
First recorded 19661991
Girls / boys 65,369 / 871,439 / 0

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 Paizleys alive today are over 10; half the Paisleys are over 8. That is 2 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: Paisley and Paizley.