Prentiss vs Preslee
American parents have registered 3,780 Preslees since 1880, against 2,789 Prentisses. Preslee is still ahead, with 142 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Prentiss Preslee
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
Of the 127 years in which either name was published, Prentiss for 97 years and Preslee for 30 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.
Side by side
| Prentiss | Preslee | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,789 | 3,780 |
| Most in one year | 50 | 240 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 142 |
| Estimated living today | 1,700 | 3,800 |
| Median age today | 50 | 11 |
| Peak year | 1943 | 2014 |
| Best rank | 980th boys | 1,104th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 1,500th |
| First recorded | 1887 | 1990 |
| Girls / boys | 65 / 2,724 | 3,717 / 63 |
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 Prentisses alive today are over 50; half the Preslees are over 11. That is 39 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Prentiss Mississippi (60.0×), Louisiana (6.9×), South Carolina (2.1×)
- Preslee Utah (8.1×), Oklahoma (5.0×), Idaho (4.8×)
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: Prentiss and Preslee.