Humanverse

Sol vs Solon

American parents have registered 12,382 Sols since 1880, against 1,351 Solons. Sol is still ahead, with 573 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sol against Solon, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sol Solon

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

Sol has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1881, when Sol had 15 and Solon had 12.

Side by side

  Sol Solon
Total US births 12,3821,351
Most in one year 57333
Babies in 2025 5735
Estimated living today 6,800590
Median age today 932
Peak year 19181916
Best rank 313th boys1,138th boys
Rank in 2025 1,145th12,008th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 4,097 / 8,2850 / 1,351

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 Solons alive today are over 32; half the Sols are over 9. That is 23 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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