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Caillou vs Caitlin

American parents have registered 112,426 Caitlins since 1880, against 252 Caillous. Caitlin is still ahead, with 78 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Caillou against Caitlin, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Caillou Caitlin

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

Caitlin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1955 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2019, when Caillou had 5 and Caitlin had 142.

Side by side

  Caillou Caitlin
Total US births 252112,426
Most in one year 357,274
Babies in 2025 under 578
Estimated living today 250110,000
Median age today 1932
Peak year 20011988
Best rank 2,681st boys44th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,326th
First recorded 20011955
Girls / boys 0 / 252112,143 / 283

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 Caitlins alive today are over 32; half the Caillous are over 19. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Caillou and Caitlin.