Humanverse

Wren vs Wrenlee

American parents have registered 15,902 Wrens since 1880, against 3,007 Wrenlees. Wren is still ahead, with 1,529 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wren against Wrenlee, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wren Wrenlee

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

Wren has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1888 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Wren had 1,529 and Wrenlee had 851.

Side by side

  Wren Wrenlee
Total US births 15,9023,007
Most in one year 1,830877
Babies in 2025 1,529851
Estimated living today 16,0003,000
Median age today 41
Peak year 20222024
Best rank 184th girls354th girls
Rank in 2025 231st355th
First recorded 18882016
Girls / boys 13,641 / 2,2613,007 / 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 Wrens alive today are over 4; half the Wrenlees are over 1. That is 3 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: Wren and Wrenlee.