Humanverse

Whit vs Whitlee

American parents have registered 1,287 Whits since 1880, against 943 Whitlees. Whit is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Whit against Whitlee, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Whit Whitlee

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 117 years in which either name was published, Whit for 87 years and Whitlee for 30 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Whit Whitlee
Total US births 1,287943
Most in one year 7956
Babies in 2025 7956
Estimated living today 890940
Median age today 99
Peak year 20252023
Best rank 1,942nd boys3,014th girls
Rank in 2025 1,942nd3,211th
First recorded 18811988
Girls / boys 0 / 1,287930 / 13

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.

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: Whit and Whitlee.