Humanverse

Wren vs Wrenly

American parents have registered 15,902 Wrens since 1880, against 1,008 Wrenlys. Wren is still ahead, with 1,529 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Wren Wrenly

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 2024, when Wren had 1,661 and Wrenly had 207.

Side by side

  Wren Wrenly
Total US births 15,9021,008
Most in one year 1,830207
Babies in 2025 1,529189
Estimated living today 16,0001,000
Median age today 42
Peak year 20222024
Best rank 184th girls1,160th girls
Rank in 2025 231st1,204th
First recorded 18882013
Girls / boys 13,641 / 2,261993 / 15

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 Wrenlys are over 2. That is 2 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 Wrenly.