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Pam vs Pamila

American parents have registered 33,148 Pams since 1880, against 755 Pamilas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pam against Pamila, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pam Pamila

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

Pam has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 1996. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1984, when Pam had 17 and Pamila had 5.

Side by side

  Pam Pamila
Total US births 33,148755
Most in one year 3,67740
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 28,000620
Median age today 6566
Peak year 19591958
Best rank 125th girls1,703rd girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19151941
Girls / boys 33,125 / 23755 / 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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pam and Pamila.