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Wesley vs Weslie

American parents have registered 250,969 Wesleys since 1880, against 1,023 Weslies. Wesley is still ahead, with 5,679 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wesley against Weslie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wesley Weslie

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

Wesley 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 2024, when Wesley had 5,249 and Weslie had 88.

Side by side

  Wesley Weslie
Total US births 250,9691,023
Most in one year 5,67988
Babies in 2025 5,67986
Estimated living today 195,000880
Median age today 329
Peak year 20252024
Best rank 52nd boys2,248th girls
Rank in 2025 52nd2,326th
First recorded 18801914
Girls / boys 3,256 / 247,713628 / 395

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 Wesleys alive today are over 32; half the Weslies are over 9. That is 23 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: Wesley and Weslie.