Humanverse

Asher vs Ashlen

American parents have registered 112,690 Ashers since 1880, against 1,083 Ashlens. Asher is still ahead, with 7,519 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Asher against Ashlen, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Asher Ashlen

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

Asher has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1989, when Asher had 78 and Ashlen had 33.

Side by side

  Asher Ashlen
Total US births 112,6901,083
Most in one year 8,52762
Babies in 2025 7,5195
Estimated living today 111,0001,100
Median age today 726
Peak year 20221995
Best rank 20th boys2,367th girls
Rank in 2025 28th14,942nd
First recorded 18801984
Girls / boys 1,463 / 111,2271,070 / 13

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 Ashlens alive today are over 26; half the Ashers are over 7. That is 19 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: Asher and Ashlen.