Humanverse

Raelee vs Raelyn

American parents have registered 15,864 Raelyns since 1880, against 1,914 Raelees. Raelyn is still ahead, with 598 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Raelee against Raelyn, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Raelee Raelyn

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

Raelyn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1949 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2008, when Raelee had 76 and Raelyn had 250.

Side by side

  Raelee Raelyn
Total US births 1,91415,864
Most in one year 1041,034
Babies in 2025 59598
Estimated living today 1,90016,000
Median age today 119
Peak year 20152016
Best rank 1,937th girls317th girls
Rank in 2025 2,859th502nd
First recorded 19691949
Girls / boys 1,914 / 015,768 / 96

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 Raelees alive today are over 11; half the Raelyns are over 9. 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: Raelee and Raelyn.