Humanverse

Virginia vs Virtie

American parents have registered 654,968 Virginias since 1880, against 139 Virties. Virginia is still ahead, with 572 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Virginia Virtie

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 1906, when Virginia had 1,496 and Virtie had 8.

Side by side

  Virginia Virtie
Total US births 654,968139
Most in one year 19,18111
Babies in 2025 572under 5
Estimated living today 229,00011
Median age today 7187
Peak year 19221927
Best rank 7th girls2,859th girls
Rank in 2025 525thunranked
First recorded 18801906
Girls / boys 652,959 / 2,009139 / 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 Virties alive today are over 87; half the Virginias are over 71. That is 16 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: Virginia and Virtie.