The names nobody respells

Thirteen names have been in the American top 100 in every year we hold, from 1880 to 2025. Twelve are boys' names and one is a girls' name. And every one of them is spelled one way.

We checked. In 2017, the newest year we hold full American counts for, the commonest spelling of each had at least 95 in every 100 babies given that name in any spelling. Thomas, Charles and Robert had no rival spelling at all in our count. The biggest rivals were Elisabeth, with 353 girls against 8,915 for Elizabeth, and Jon, with 318 boys against 9,434 for John.

That is a nice fact. It is not yet a finding. These are old names, and an old name has had centuries to settle on a spelling. So we asked a harder question. If you take a list of popular names and split it into the ones with one spelling and the ones with rivals, do the one-spelling names last longer?

How we counted

For every name, we added up all the spellings of it that are said the same way, boys only or girls only. Then we looked at what share the name itself had.

In 1990, Michael had 97% of its sound. Steven had 58%, because Stephen had most of the rest. Megan had 74%, with Meghan, Meagan and Meaghan taking most of the rest.

We call 95% or more “one spelling”. Under 80% is “rival spellings”. Anything between is in between. The full rule, including the pairs we split and joined by hand, is in the box at the bottom.

Thirty-five years later

Start with the American top 100 of 1990 and see which names are still in the top 100 in 2025.

Of the 69 boys' names with one spelling, 26 are still there. That is 38%. Of the 16 with rival spellings, two are: Dylan, 41st, and Jonathan, 89th. That is 12%. A boys' name with one spelling in 1990 was three times as likely to be in the top 100 today.

The ones with rivals mostly went together. Steven was 25th in 1990 and is 271st now. Stephen is 383rd. Brian and Bryan are 339th and 336th. Corey is 778th and Cory is outside the top 1,000.

For girls almost nothing from 1990 survived, whatever the spelling. Four of the 34 one-spelling names are still in the top 100: Olivia, now first, Elizabeth, Victoria and Leah. Of the 31 with rival spellings, one is. Sarah, 90th.

But one spelling is no shield on its own. The number one girls' name of 1990 was Jessica, given to 46,459 girls, and 99 in every 100 of them spelled it the same way. It is 665th now. Amanda had no rival spelling at all and has fallen from 4th to 493rd. Heather, 19th in 1990 with no rival spelling in our count, is outside the top 1,000.

The last eight years

Then we did the same with the American top 100 of 2017 and looked at 2025. The pattern is the same, and for boys it is stronger.

Of the 61 boys' names with one spelling, 52 are still in the top 100. That is 85%. Of the 16 with rival spellings, six are, 38%. Theodore went from 61st to 4th, Henry from 18th to 5th, Oliver from 10th to 3rd. Meanwhile Aiden went from 17th to 62nd, Jackson from 20th to 36th, Jaxon from 43rd to 115th and Ayden from 99th to 257th. The one rival-spelling boys' name that climbed is Mateo, 42nd to 8th, with Matteo taking a fifth of the sound.

Girls are less tidy. 24 of the 31 one-spelling names are still in the top 100 (77%) and 21 of the 36 with rivals (58%), so the one-spelling names do better. But the names in between did best of all, 28 of 33. And the biggest climb of any girls' name on the list belongs to a name with rival spellings. Eliana went from 88th to 10th, with Elliana and Elianna alongside it.

Now count by sound

Here is the catch. The official list counts spellings, not names. When parents move from one spelling to another, the old spelling falls down the list even if the name, said out loud, is as popular as ever. That is exactly what happened to Aidan, which we wrote about in the spelling wars. So some of what we just showed is a name splitting its own vote.

To take that out, we added every spelling together and compared each name's whole share of babies in 2017, the newest full American file we hold, with its share in the start year.

From 1990 the gap holds up. The typical one-spelling boys' name kept 38% of its share by 2017. The typical name with rival spellings kept 17%. For girls it was 19% against 10%. Megan, counted with every spelling, kept 3%.

Start from 2000, 2008 or 2010 and the one-spelling names still come out ahead. For boys it is clear. From 2010, the typical one-spelling boys' name kept 85% of its share and the typical one with rivals 70%. For girls it is closer. From 2010, 76% against 75%.

Start from 2005 and it runs the other way. Over those twelve years the typical one-spelling boys' name kept 58% of its share and the typical name with rivals kept 71%. Girls, 58% against 70%.

So counted by sound, the names with one spelling held on better in four of the five start years we can test, for boys and for girls. The exception is a real one, and for girls the lead is often small. Some of what looks like a name falling down the official list is just its spellings moving about.

And we cannot tell you that the spelling is the reason. The names everybody respelled in 1990 were the names of the moment: Megan, Kristen, Brittney, Caitlin. The names nobody respelled include most of the names that have been around for centuries. Names of the moment fade, and Jessica and Heather show a single spelling does not stop that. The data shows the two things going together. It does not show which one is doing the work.

Britain spells it one way

In England and Wales the top 100 is mostly one spelling already. In 2025, 64 of the top 100 boys' names and 58 of the girls' had 95% or more of their sound. In America in 2017 it was 61 boys' and only 31 girls'. Britain has five boys' names with rival spellings in its top 100 and fifteen girls'. America had sixteen and 36.

The names British parents are choosing most are names nobody has to spell out. Arthur went to 3,211 boys in 2025, Oliver to 3,154, George to 3,082, Olivia to 2,386 girls and Florence to 1,924. No other spelling of any of them came close. The only other spellings said the same way, anywhere in the file, are three boys called Jeorge and four girls called Olivija.

We cannot run the staying-power test here yet, because we only hold two years of British figures. One year shows nothing either way. From 2024 to 2025 the typical one-spelling boys' name in the top 100 fell 3.2% and the typical one with rivals fell 2.9%. For girls both fell 1.0%. We will come back to it when we have older files.

What it means for you

A name with one spelling is not guaranteed to last. Ask anyone called Jessica. But the names that have lasted longest are all names nobody has to ask how to spell, and over 35 years the one-spelling names were the ones still standing.

If you are choosing a spelling of a name that already has three, you are choosing a name that is probably at its height. That is not a reason not to. It is a reason to like it for itself, not because it is everywhere.