Alainah vs Alan
American parents have registered 364,389 Alans since 1880, against 524 Alainahs. Alan is still ahead, with 1,915 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Alainah Alan
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Alan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 2011, when Alainah had 39 and Alan had 2,352.
Side by side
| Alainah | Alan | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 524 | 364,389 |
| Most in one year | 39 | 9,052 |
| Babies in 2025 | 8 | 1,915 |
| Estimated living today | 520 | 270,000 |
| Median age today | 13 | 55 |
| Peak year | 2011 | 1955 |
| Best rank | 3,843rd girls | 43rd boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 10,917th | 191st |
| First recorded | 1991 | 1882 |
| Girls / boys | 524 / 0 | 1,076 / 363,313 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Alans alive today are over 55; half the Alainahs are over 13. That is 42 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Alainah and Alan.