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Vanellope vs Vannessa

American parents have registered 3,231 Vannessas since 1880, against 840 Vanellopes. But in 2025 it was Vanellope that was commoner, 58 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Vanellope against Vannessa, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Vanellope Vannessa

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 75 years in which either name was published, Vannessa for 62 years and Vanellope for 13 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Vanellope Vannessa
Total US births 8403,231
Most in one year 95123
Babies in 2025 58under 5
Estimated living today 8403,100
Median age today 637
Peak year 20191987
Best rank 2,011th girls1,182nd girls
Rank in 2025 2,895thunranked
First recorded 20131951
Girls / boys 840 / 03,231 / 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.

Which name is older

Half of the Vannessas alive today are over 37; half the Vanellopes are over 6. That is 31 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: Vanellope and Vannessa.