Humanverse

Wilma vs Wilmoth

American parents have registered 140,855 Wilmas since 1880, against 208 Wilmoths. Wilma is still ahead, with 41 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wilma against Wilmoth, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wilma Wilmoth

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

Wilma 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 1909, when Wilma had 650 and Wilmoth had 9.

Side by side

  Wilma Wilmoth
Total US births 140,855208
Most in one year 4,20221
Babies in 2025 41under 5
Estimated living today 38,0009
Median age today 7790
Peak year 19251927
Best rank 62nd girls2,552nd girls
Rank in 2025 3,645thunranked
First recorded 18801909
Girls / boys 140,101 / 754178 / 30

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 Wilmoths alive today are over 90; half the Wilmas are over 77. That is 13 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: Wilma and Wilmoth.