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Douglas vs Elijah

How Douglas and Elijah 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

Douglas

Male · Celtic

Meaning: Dwells By The Dark Stream

Elijah

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Jehovah Is God

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Douglas (boys) vs Elijah (boys), 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 Douglas Elijah
Peak year (most US births) 1957 — 16,731 boys 2011 — 13,997 boys
Peak rank #30 #13
Most recent rank (2025) #807 (308 births) #7 (11,111 births)
Total US births since 1880 513,932 345,561
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 3,531 125,763

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Douglas reached 16,731 US births in 1957 — 2,734 more than Elijah's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Douglas births Elijah births
1995 Elijah 0 3,976

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 boys-name list.

Douglas — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Nevada #450 19
2 Mississippi #473 34
3 Utah #511 33
4 Oregon #535 33
5 Massachusetts #542 81

Elijah — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Arkansas #3 1,358
2 Louisiana #3 2,113
3 New Mexico #4 821
4 Oklahoma #4 1,558
5 Florida #4 8,344

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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 →