Head to head · Girls' names
Alice vs Ruby
#65 vs #64 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Ruby is a whisker ahead (#64 vs #65 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. 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, Alice leads 3 measures of 6; Ruby 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: Alice #11, Ruby #114 — Alice higher
- 1890s: Alice #14, Ruby #67 — Alice higher
- 1900s: Alice #11, Ruby #40 — Alice higher
- 1910s: Alice #12, Ruby #24 — Alice higher
- 1920s: Alice #16, Ruby #29 — Alice higher
- 1930s: Alice #25, Ruby #47 — Alice higher
- 1940s: Alice #42, Ruby #93 — Alice higher
- 1950s: Alice #86, Ruby #169 — Alice higher
- 1960s: Alice #150, Ruby #284 — Alice higher
- 1970s: Alice #241, Ruby #351 — Alice higher
- 1980s: Alice #328, Ruby #370 — Alice higher
- 1990s: Alice #404, Ruby #273 — Ruby higher
- 2000s: Alice #387, Ruby #165 — Ruby higher
- 2010s: Alice #102, Ruby #88 — Ruby higher
- 2020s: Alice #67, Ruby #65 — Ruby higher
Alice stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Ruby has held the lead since the 1990s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Alice | Ruby |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #11 | #114 |
| 1890s | #14 | #67 |
| 1900s | #11 | #40 |
| 1910s | #12 | #24 |
| 1920s | #16 | #29 |
| 1930s | #25 | #47 |
| 1940s | #42 | #93 |
| 1950s | #86 | #169 |
| 1960s | #150 | #284 |
| 1970s | #241 | #351 |
| 1980s | #328 | #370 |
| 1990s | #404 | #273 |
| 2000s | #387 | #165 |
| 2010s | #102 | #88 |
| 2020s | #67 | #65 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Alice
- France#10
- Canada#12
- England & Wales#49
- Scotland#52
Ruby
- Scotland#30
- England & Wales#41
- Canada#89
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Alice
of a noble kind
Both Germanic elements are well attested and the chain of forms from the compound to the modern name is documented at every stage. What is gone is any way of seeing that from the name as it now stands.
Adalheidis → Adelais → Aalis → Alice
How it traveled
One woman carrying it changed what a short story could be asked to do. She wrote almost nothing but stories across a working life of half a century, set nearly all of them in small towns in southwestern Ontario, and built them so that a paragraph could contain forty years and a marriage could turn on a sentence somebody almost said.
Ruby
The red gemstone; ultimately from Latin ruber, "red"
The chain runs from Latin ruber through Medieval Latin rubinus, the red stone, into Old French and then English.
ruber (Latin, "red") → rubinus (Medieval Latin) → rubi / rubis (Old French) → ruby (English) → Ruby (given name)
How it traveled
The word arrived in English from Old French in the Middle Ages, and stayed a word for centuries before anyone thought to call a daughter by it. That change came in the nineteenth century, when English-speaking parents began naming girls after gemstones and flowers, and Ruby took to it better than most of its neighbors.
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
Alice
AL-iss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. French says it in two as well, with the weight at the back, which English speakers rarely attempt.
- Ali — The front alone; short, current and completely unisex.
- Elsie — Reached by sound from the ending; a standing name in its own right.
- Allie — An affectionate ending; warm and firmly informal.
Ruby
ROO-bee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Pronounced the same as the gemstone, and the same in every English-speaking country — one of the few names that needs no explaining at a roll call.
- Rubes — The everyday informal short form among friends and siblings; almost never written down.
- Roo — A family nickname, usually from the early years, and shared with several other names.
- Ru — Clipped and informal; also stands alone as a short name in its own right.
- Ruby-Rose / Ruby-Mae — Hyphenated compounds are common in British and Irish usage, with Ruby used in full day to day.
Who has carried each name
Alice
Alice Munro (b. 1931) — Nobel laureate, master of the short story
Alice Walker (b. 1944) — The Color Purple author, first Black woman to win the fiction Pulitzer
Alice Paul (b. 1885) — Suffragist who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment
Ruby
Ruby Bridges (b. 1954) — At six, integrated her New Orleans school — immortalized by Norman Rockwell
Ruby Dee (b. 1922) — Stage and screen great of the civil rights era
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 Alice if you want…
- a name that charts abroad tooAlice is on the national lists of France, Canada, England & Wales and Scotland
Choose Ruby if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Ruby from Alice.
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
Alice
Strengths
- It is recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- It has been in continuous use since the medieval period without interruption.
- The spelling is short, unambiguous and never needs repeating.
To consider
- It is currently fashionable again, so a child may not be the only one.
- The meaning is entirely invisible without explanation.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Ruby
Strengths
- Everyone can spell it and everyone can say it: it is an ordinary English word, so it survives phone calls, forms and teachers without a second attempt.
- A long unbroken record — in continuous use since the Victorian gemstone fashion, with living bearers across every adult generation.
- Charts on both sides of the Atlantic, in Scotland, England and Wales, and Canada, so it travels without becoming foreign.
To consider
- It is also a common word and a common pet name, so a child will meet the gem, the color and somebody's dog under the same label.
- Rubi, Rubie and Rubey all exist, so expect an occasional wrong letter even though the main spelling is the familiar one.
- It carries a strong period flavor for some listeners — it was a great-grandmother's name before it came back around, and both associations are live at once.
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 Alice and Ruby 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 Alice and Ruby?
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
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Greatest Generation names (born 1901–1927)
- all guides
Every list here names both Alice and Ruby — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Alice or Ruby — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Alice or Ruby?
- Ruby, in 2025: Ruby ranked #64 with 3,554 babies; Alice ranked #65 with 3,547 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Alice or Ruby?
- Alice. Over the last five years Alice moved up 11 places; Ruby moved up 10 places.
- Which is the older name, Alice or Ruby?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Alice and Ruby?
- About 220,000 people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 160,000 people named Ruby are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Alices or Rubys in the classroom?
- Alice will almost certainly be the only one in school. Ruby 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 Alice, Ruby and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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