Head to head · Girls' names
Chloe vs Ellie
#23 vs #24 in 2025
Chloe is a whisker ahead (#23 vs #24 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Chloe is holding its place on the charts, Ellie is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Ellie has the edge.
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, Chloe leads 4 measures of 6; Ellie leads 1.
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: Chloe #352, Ellie #366 — Chloe higher
- 1890s: Chloe #356, Ellie #415 — Chloe higher
- 1900s: Chloe #499, Ellie #466 — Ellie higher
- 1910s: Chloe #638, Ellie #667 — Chloe higher
- 1920s: Chloe #858, Ellie #849 — Ellie higher
- 1930s: Chloe #777, Ellie #1073 — Chloe higher
- 1940s: Chloe #1168, Ellie #1333 — Chloe higher
- 1950s: Chloe #2015, Ellie #1370 — Ellie higher
- 1960s: Chloe #2809, Ellie #1525 — Ellie higher
- 1970s: Chloe #1774, Ellie #1747 — Ellie higher
- 1980s: Chloe #663, Ellie #1639 — Chloe higher
- 1990s: Chloe #137, Ellie #716 — Chloe higher
- 2000s: Chloe #21, Ellie #212 — Chloe higher
- 2010s: Chloe #17, Ellie #62 — Chloe higher
- 2020s: Chloe #23, Ellie #27 — Chloe higher
Chloe stood higher in 10 of 15 decades; Chloe has held the lead since the 1980s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Chloe | Ellie |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #352 | #366 |
| 1890s | #356 | #415 |
| 1900s | #499 | #466 |
| 1910s | #638 | #667 |
| 1920s | #858 | #849 |
| 1930s | #777 | #1073 |
| 1940s | #1168 | #1333 |
| 1950s | #2015 | #1370 |
| 1960s | #2809 | #1525 |
| 1970s | #1774 | #1747 |
| 1980s | #663 | #1639 |
| 1990s | #137 | #716 |
| 2000s | #21 | #212 |
| 2010s | #17 | #62 |
| 2020s | #23 | #27 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Chloe
- Canada#8
- England & Wales#72
- Scotland#83
Ellie
- Canada#18
- Scotland#48
- France#83
- England & Wales#88
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Chloe
green shoot; young green growth
From Greek χλόη (khloē), the fresh green of new grass or crops. It was used as an epithet of Demeter, goddess of grain and harvest.
Χλόη (Khloē) → Chloe (Latin) → Chloe (English) → Chloé (French)
How it traveled
The name is Greek, and it kept its Greek shape all the way through. It appears in the New Testament, where Paul sends greetings involving the household of a woman named Chloe in Corinth, and it appears in Greek literature in Longus's second-century romance Daphnis and Chloe.
Ellie
Not established
It depends on which full name is behind it, and increasingly there is none. Eleanor's own origin has never been settled; Elizabeth is a Hebrew sentence about an oath; Ella is Germanic and means something like other or all. A pet form drops exactly the material that would tell you which, and a pet form used alone has no meaning at all.
Eleanor → Ellie
How it traveled
That reversal is one of the largest quiet changes in English-speaking naming. For most of recorded history a pet form was something a child was called and a full name was what went on the certificate, and the two were not confused; over the last fifty years the pet form has increasingly become the registered name, so that the records now hold hundreds of thousands of children with no formal version to grow into.
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
Chloe
KLOH-ee
Two syllables, with the stress on the first. The ch is a hard K, not the sound in chair. The French spelling Chloé and the older English Chloë both use their marks to signal that the final e is pronounced.
- Chlo — The everyday clipped form, used by family and friends; almost never written on anything official.
- Clo — Same short form, spelled phonetically, which sidesteps the silent h.
- Coco — An affectionate nickname rather than a derived one; it also stands alone as a name in French use.
- Chlo-Chlo — A doubled pet form used mostly within families and in early childhood.
Ellie
EL-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled l keeps the vowel short, which is doing real work: a single l would leave it long and produce a different name.
- Elle — The name with its ending removed; a complete given name in its own right and French in flavor.
- El — One closed syllable; unisex, short and completely modern.
- Lellie — A nursery reduplication; affectionate and family-only.
Who has carried each name
Chloe
Chloe Kim (b. 2000) — Youngest woman ever to win Olympic snowboarding gold
Chloë Grace Moretz (b. 1997) — Kick-Ass and Carrie star acting since age six
Chloe Bennet (b. 1992) — Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star
Ellie
Ellie Goulding (b. 1986) — "Lights" and "Love Me Like You Do" hitmaker
Ellie Kemper (b. 1980) — Star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Office
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 Chloe if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Chloe from Ellie.
Choose Ellie if you want…
- a name that charts abroad tooEllie is on the national lists of Canada, Scotland, France and England & Wales
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
Chloe
Strengths
- A settled, documented meaning from Greek — the green of new growth — which is a rare thing among short names.
- An unbroken written record from ancient Greek literature and the New Testament through to today's kindergartens.
- Recognized and pronounced across several languages, with only the accent mark changing between English and French.
To consider
- The spelling gets competition: Khloe, Cloe and Chloé all circulate, so expect to spell it out and to be asked whether there's an accent.
- Anyone meeting the written name cold may try a soft ch, as in chair, before being corrected. Most people only need telling once.
- It clusters strongly among children, teenagers and young adults rather than across all ages, so it reads as a name of recent generations.
Ellie
Strengths
- Short, warm and among the easiest names in English for a small child to say.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Several long formal names sit behind it if a family wants one on the certificate.
To consider
- It is a pet form used as a full name, which leaves nothing more formal underneath.
- It is currently extremely popular, which means a classroom is likely to hold more than one.
- Elly, Elli and Ellee all exist for the same sound.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Chloe
40%chance Chloe feels dated by 2040
Chloe sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Ellie
59%chance Ellie feels dated by 2040
Ellie is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
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 Chloe and Ellie 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 Chloe and Ellie?
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
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- Two-syllable names, the American default
- all guides
Every list here names both Chloe and Ellie — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Chloe or Ellie — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Chloe or Ellie?
- Chloe, in 2025: Chloe ranked #23 with 6,203 babies; Ellie ranked #24 with 6,176 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Chloe or Ellie?
- Ellie. Over the last five years Chloe moved up 2 places; Ellie moved up 5 places.
- Which is the older name, Chloe or Ellie?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Chloe and Ellie?
- About 248,000 people named Chloe are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 102,000 people named Ellie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Chloes or Ellies in the classroom?
- Chloe will almost certainly be the only one in school. Ellie 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
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