9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Ruby vs Isabella

How Ruby and Isabella 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

Ruby

Female · French

Meaning: Jewel

Isabella

Female · Arthurian

Meaning: Meaning Unknown

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Ruby (girls) vs Isabella (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 Ruby Isabella
Peak year (most US births) 1924 — 8,406 girls 2010 — 22,935 girls
Peak rank #26 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #64 (3,554 births) #7 (10,666 births)
Total US births since 1880 309,288 396,589
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 35,743 125,637

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Isabella reached 22,935 US births in 2010 — 14,529 more than Ruby'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 Ruby births Isabella births
1998 Isabella 0 3,851

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.

Ruby — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Utah #18 1,007
2 Oregon #32 622
3 Idaho #33 335
4 Montana #34 172
5 Wyoming #39 68

Isabella — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Florida #2 10,088
2 Nevada #3 1,227
3 Texas #4 15,128
4 New Mexico #4 680
5 Arizona #4 2,998

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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 →