Whitley vs Whitman

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Whitley Whitman

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 79 years in which either name was published, Whitley for 52 years and Whitman for 27 years. The lead changed hands 17 times.

• 1909–1953 Whitman ahead, apart from 2 short spells
• 1954–1964 Whitley ahead
• 1965–1981 Whitman ahead
• 1984–2025 Whitley ahead

12 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

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.

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