Head to head · Girls' names
Iris vs Ivy
#61 vs #39 in 2025 · Greek vs Old English roots · both climbing the charts fast
Ivy is a whisker ahead (#39 vs #61 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, Ivy leads 4 measures of 6; Iris 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: Iris #649, Ivy #276 — Ivy higher
- 1890s: Iris #477, Ivy #320 — Ivy higher
- 1900s: Iris #360, Ivy #402 — Iris higher
- 1910s: Iris #270, Ivy #496 — Iris higher
- 1920s: Iris #221, Ivy #675 — Iris higher
- 1930s: Iris #214, Ivy #768 — Iris higher
- 1940s: Iris #249, Ivy #899 — Iris higher
- 1950s: Iris #287, Ivy #592 — Iris higher
- 1960s: Iris #397, Ivy #730 — Iris higher
- 1970s: Iris #434, Ivy #632 — Iris higher
- 1980s: Iris #457, Ivy #615 — Iris higher
- 1990s: Iris #461, Ivy #543 — Iris higher
- 2000s: Iris #366, Ivy #346 — Ivy higher
- 2010s: Iris #221, Ivy #155 — Ivy higher
- 2020s: Iris #88, Ivy #43 — Ivy higher
Iris stood higher in 10 of 15 decades; Ivy has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Iris | Ivy |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #649 | #276 |
| 1890s | #477 | #320 |
| 1900s | #360 | #402 |
| 1910s | #270 | #496 |
| 1920s | #221 | #675 |
| 1930s | #214 | #768 |
| 1940s | #249 | #899 |
| 1950s | #287 | #592 |
| 1960s | #397 | #730 |
| 1970s | #434 | #632 |
| 1980s | #457 | #615 |
| 1990s | #461 | #543 |
| 2000s | #366 | #346 |
| 2010s | #221 | #155 |
| 2020s | #88 | #43 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Iris
- France#11
- England & Wales#61
Ivy
- England & Wales#5
- Scotland#16
- Canada#33
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Iris
Rainbow
From the Greek word iris, 'rainbow'. The flower and the iris of the eye were both named from the same word, for their color.
Ἶρις (Greek) → Iris (Latin) → Iris (English)
How it traveled
Iris is Greek, both a common noun for the rainbow and the name of the goddess who carried messages along it in early Greek poetry. Latin took the word unchanged, and botanists later applied it to the flower, while Greek medical writers used it for the colored part of the eye.
Ivy
The ivy plant — the climbing evergreen
From Old English īfig, the ordinary word for the plant, used directly as a name.
īfig (Old English) → ivy (English plant name) → Ivy
How it traveled
Ivy is an English vocabulary name, taken straight from the plant: Old English īfig, a climber that stays green when everything around it has gone bare. Ivy wreaths were worn at the Greek and Roman festivals of Dionysus and Bacchus, and the plant kept a place in English midwinter custom — the traditional carol "The Holly and the Ivy" pairs the two as evergreens of the season.
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
Iris
EYE-ris
Two syllables, stress on the first. French speakers say it closer to ee-REESS, with the stress at the end — worth knowing if the name will be used on both sides of the Atlantic.
- Iri — Informal, used within families; not a standalone given name in English.
- Ri — Informal and occasional; most bearers are called by the full name at every age.
Ivy
EYE-vee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The pronunciation is settled wherever English is spoken, and matches the plant exactly.
- Ivy-Rose — Not a short form but a hyphenated compound in real use in England and Wales, where Ivy is often paired with a second name.
Who has carried each name
Iris
Iris Murdoch (b. 1919) — Booker Prize-winning novelist and philosopher
Iris Apfel (b. 1921) — Fashion icon still starring in campaigns past age 100
Ivy
No documented entry for Ivy yet.
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 Iris if you want…
- a name fewer children share#61 in 2025 — iris will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 66 places on the charts in five years
Choose Ivy if you want…
- a name most people already know#39 in 2025, 5,117 babies that year
- a name that charts abroad tooIvy 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
Iris
Strengths
- Four letters, spelled the way it sounds; almost no one needs it repeated or corrected.
- The same spelling works in French, Spanish, Dutch and German, with only the stress shifting.
- An ordinary English word as well as a name — people already know the flower and the part of the eye.
To consider
- It offers almost no short forms. A child who wants a nickname will have to improvise one, and most bearers simply go by Iris.
- Said quickly, it can be misheard as 'Irish', and it runs together with surnames that begin with S — try the full name aloud before deciding.
- It is climbing steadily rather than sitting still, so it may feel less uncommon by the time your child reaches school than it does now.
Ivy
Strengths
- Spelled the way the English word is spelled, so most people write it correctly on the first try.
- One settled pronunciation across every English-speaking country, with no regional variants to correct.
- Short enough to need no nickname, and it sits easily beside longer or more formal middle names.
To consider
- It is rising quickly, so a child born now is likely to meet more Ivys among her classmates than the current figures suggest.
- There is no natural short form and no long formal version to retreat to. Ivy is what she will be called in every register, from the playground to a résumé.
- The word carries other associations — the Ivy League, poison ivy — that children notice and joke about, usually briefly.
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 Iris and Ivy 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 Iris and Ivy?
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
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Nature names in real use
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- all guides
Every list here names both Iris and Ivy — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Iris or Ivy — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Iris or Ivy?
- Ivy, in 2025: Ivy ranked #39 with 5,117 babies; Iris ranked #61 with 3,729 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Iris or Ivy?
- Iris. Over the last five years Iris moved up 66 places; Ivy moved up 18 places.
- Which is the older name, Iris or Ivy?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Iris and Ivy?
- About 76,000 people named Iris are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 76,000 people named Ivy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Iriss or Ivys in the classroom?
- Iris will almost certainly be the only one in school. Ivy 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 Iris, Ivy and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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