Zell vs Zelpha
American parents have registered 956 Zelphas since 1880, against 583 Zells. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Zell Zelpha
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 81 years in which either name was published, Zelpha for 62 years and Zell for 19 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.
Side by side
| Zell | Zelpha | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 583 | 956 |
| Most in one year | 29 | 39 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 120 | 90 |
| Median age today | 23 | 82 |
| Peak year | 1925 | 1916 |
| Best rank | 1,891st girls | 1,127th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1898 | 1886 |
| Girls / boys | 370 / 213 | 956 / 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 Zelphas alive today are over 82; half the Zells are over 23. That is 59 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: Zell and Zelpha.