Humanverse

Ava vs Avant

American parents have registered 344,441 Avas since 1880, against 642 Avants. Ava is still ahead, with 7,739 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ava against Avant, 1880 to 2025 0 5k 10k 15k 20k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ava Avant

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

Ava 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 1971, when Ava had 161 and Avant had 6.

Side by side

  Ava Avant
Total US births 344,441642
Most in one year 18,06558
Babies in 2025 7,7395
Estimated living today 335,000630
Median age today 1217
Peak year 20072004
Best rank 4th girls2,051st boys
Rank in 2025 11th12,008th
First recorded 18801971
Girls / boys 344,097 / 3440 / 642

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 Avants alive today are over 17; half the Avas are over 12. That is 5 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: Ava and Avant.