Head to head · Boys' names
Ace vs Arlo
#164 vs #148 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Arlo is a whisker ahead (#148 vs #164 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Arlo leads 4 measures of 6; Ace leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Ace #725, Arlo — — Ace higher
- 1890s: Ace #871, Arlo #1051 — Ace higher
- 1900s: Ace #991, Arlo #1106 — Ace higher
- 1910s: Ace #1563, Arlo #883 — Arlo higher
- 1920s: Ace #1815, Arlo #777 — Arlo higher
- 1930s: Ace #1725, Arlo #739 — Arlo higher
- 1940s: Ace #1605, Arlo #1074 — Arlo higher
- 1950s: Ace #1891, Arlo #1464 — Arlo higher
- 1960s: Ace #2225, Arlo #2389 — Ace higher
- 1970s: Ace #2142, Arlo #1515 — Arlo higher
- 1980s: Ace #1840, Arlo #2218 — Ace higher
- 1990s: Ace #2203, Arlo #3330 — Ace higher
- 2000s: Ace #1344, Arlo #2070 — Ace higher
- 2010s: Ace #411, Arlo #571 — Ace higher
- 2020s: Ace #166, Arlo #172 — Ace higher
Ace stood higher in 9 of 15 decades; Ace has held the lead since the 1980s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ace | Arlo |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #725 | — |
| 1890s | #871 | #1051 |
| 1900s | #991 | #1106 |
| 1910s | #1563 | #883 |
| 1920s | #1815 | #777 |
| 1930s | #1725 | #739 |
| 1940s | #1605 | #1074 |
| 1950s | #1891 | #1464 |
| 1960s | #2225 | #2389 |
| 1970s | #2142 | #1515 |
| 1980s | #1840 | #2218 |
| 1990s | #2203 | #3330 |
| 2000s | #1344 | #2070 |
| 2010s | #411 | #571 |
| 2020s | #166 | #172 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Ace
Not charting outside the US.
Arlo
- England & Wales#15
- Scotland#24
- Canada#88
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ace
the one on dice or cards; by extension, an expert
The English word comes through Old French from Latin 'as', a Roman coin and unit of one. A separate, much older road exists: Ace also appears as a medieval English given name of Norman origin, unrelated to the card sense.
as (Latin) → as (Old French) → ace (Middle English) → Ace
How it traveled
The word traveled from Latin 'as' — a single unit, a small Roman coin — into Old French as 'as', the one-spot on a die, and from there into Middle English. In card play its fortunes reversed: the lowest card came to outrank the king in game after game, which is roughly how 'ace' picked up its second life as a word for the best of something.
Arlo
Not established
No meaning has been established for Arlo. What is documented is the sound's history: Spenser's invented place-name Arlo Hill, drawn from the Irish Aherlow; its long use as an English and American surname; and the Spanish word arlo, a name for the barberry shrub, which is sometimes attached to the name without any evidence connecting the two. Parents who want a firm translation will not find one here.
How it traveled
The earliest clear appearance is literary: Spenser's Arlo Hill in the Mutabilitie Cantos, a poetic reshaping of Aherlow in County Tipperary. From there Arlo surfaces as a surname and then, in nineteenth-century America, as a given name in modest but steady use — never fashionable, never absent.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Ace
AYSS
One syllable, rhyming with face. No regional variation to worry about, and almost no one needs to hear it twice.
- Acey — Informal extension used by family and friends; not a formal alternative.
- Ace — Also works the other way round — Ace has long served as an informal nickname for boys and men whose names begin with A, or whose initials spell it out.
Arlo
AR-loh
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with Carlo. British and Irish speakers soften the r; the vowels themselves are the same everywhere.
- Lo — Informal clipping used within families; too short to work as a full given name.
- Arlie — An older American given name in its own right, still used occasionally as an affectionate extension of Arlo.
- Ar — Playground-level shortening, used in speech rather than writing.
Who has carried each name
Ace
No documented entry for Ace yet.
Arlo
Arlo Guthrie (b. 1947) — "Alice's Restaurant" folk singer, Woody Guthrie's son
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ace if you want…
- a name fewer children share#164 in 2025 — ace will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name with fewer syllablesAce is 1 syllable to Arlo's 2
Choose Arlo if you want…
- a name most people already know#148 in 2025, 2,443 babies that year
- a name on the way upup 72 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itArlo runs 2 syllables, Ace 1
- a name that charts abroad tooArlo is on the national lists of England & Wales, Scotland and Canada
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Ace
Strengths
- One syllable, four letters, spelled the way it sounds — rarely misheard, rarely misspelled, easy for a child to write early.
- A word already known to every English speaker, so it needs no explanation and no correction over the phone.
- Pairs cleanly with long or multi-syllable surnames, where a short first name carries well.
To consider
- It is a word before it is a name, and the word means 'the best'. Expect the pun — in sports, in report cards, in first introductions — for a lifetime. Some families like that; some find it a lot to hand over.
- There is no longer form to fall back on. A child who wants something more formal for a résumé or a signature has nowhere to retreat.
- Among younger people, 'ace' also circulates as shorthand for asexual, a meaning worth knowing about even though it rarely causes confusion with a name.
Arlo
Strengths
- Four letters, two syllables, spelled exactly as it sounds — rarely needs repeating or correcting.
- Already short, so it works as a full name and a casual name at once, without depending on a nickname.
- Charts in England and Wales, Scotland and Canada as well as the US, so it travels through English-speaking countries without explanation.
To consider
- The origin is genuinely unsettled, and the tidy "barberry tree" gloss you will find on many sites is not supported. If a documented meaning matters to you, this name will not supply one.
- It is rising quickly and from a broad base, so it is likely to feel considerably more common by the time a child born now finishes primary school than it does at the moment.
- It sits close to Harlow, Marlow and Arlow in sound, and Harlow is well established for girls — expect the occasional mishearing on the phone.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Ace and Arlo in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Ace and Arlo?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Ace and Arlo — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ace or Arlo — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ace or Arlo?
- Arlo, in 2025: Arlo ranked #148 with 2,443 babies; Ace ranked #164 with 2,239 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ace or Arlo?
- Arlo. Over the last five years Ace moved up 35 places; Arlo moved up 72 places.
- Which is the older name, Ace or Arlo?
- Ace entered the US charts in 1882; Arlo entered the US charts in 1899. On the American record, Ace is the older name.
- How many people are named Ace and Arlo?
- About 25,500 people named Ace are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 22,000 people named Arlo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Aces or Arlos in the classroom?
- Ace will almost certainly be the only one in school. Arlo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Ace, Arlo and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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