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Alani vs Sophia

How Alani and Sophia compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Alani

Female · Irish

Meaning: Dear Child.

Sophia

Female · Greek

Meaning: Wise

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Alani (girls) vs Sophia (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Alani Sophia
Peak year (most US births) 2025 — 1,843 girls 2012 — 22,335 girls
Peak rank #161 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #161 (1,843 births) #5 (12,561 births)
Total US births since 1880 17,760 388,433
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 13,146 133,616

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Sophia reached 22,335 US births in 2012 — 20,492 more than Alani's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Alani — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Delaware #120 43
2 Rhode Island #140 26
3 District of Columbia #143 19
4 Florida #153 1,072
5 Mississippi #178 133

Sophia — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Mexico #3 769
2 New York #3 8,010
3 Illinois #3 4,861
4 Arizona #4 3,118
5 Massachusetts #4 2,790

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →