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Virdie vs Virginia

American parents have registered 654,968 Virginias since 1880, against 555 Virdies. Virginia is still ahead, with 572 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Virdie against Virginia, 1880 to 2025 0 5k 10k 15k 20k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Virdie Virginia

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

Virginia 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 1893, when Virdie had 11 and Virginia had 498.

Side by side

  Virdie Virginia
Total US births 555654,968
Most in one year 2819,181
Babies in 2025 under 5572
Estimated living today 40229,000
Median age today 8571
Peak year 19201922
Best rank 1,550th girls7th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked525th
First recorded 18891880
Girls / boys 555 / 0652,959 / 2,009

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 Virdies alive today are over 85; half the Virginias are over 71. That is 14 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: Virdie and Virginia.