Humanverse

Rowe vs Rowland

American parents have registered 4,279 Rowlands since 1880, against 712 Rowes. But in 2025 it was Rowe that was commoner, 95 babies to 16.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Rowe against Rowland, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Rowe Rowland

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 141 years in which either name was published, Rowland for 130 years and Rowe for 11 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Rowe Rowland
Total US births 7124,279
Most in one year 9590
Babies in 2025 9516
Estimated living today 5601,800
Median age today 458
Peak year 20251917
Best rank 2,604th boys623rd boys
Rank in 2025 2,604th5,608th
First recorded 19141880
Girls / boys 185 / 5270 / 4,279

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 Rowlands alive today are over 58; half the Rowes are over 4. That is 54 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Rowe Rowland
England and Wales 9153

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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