Humanverse

Caleb vs Calloway

American parents have registered 325,003 Calebs since 1880, against 857 Calloways. Caleb is still ahead, with 5,217 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Caleb against Calloway, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Caleb Calloway

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

Caleb 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 1916, when Caleb had 39 and Calloway had 10.

Side by side

  Caleb Calloway
Total US births 325,003857
Most in one year 11,684144
Babies in 2025 5,217144
Estimated living today 317,000800
Median age today 193
Peak year 20022025
Best rank 35th boys1,466th boys
Rank in 2025 58th1,466th
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 653 / 324,350138 / 719

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 Calebs alive today are over 19; half the Calloways are over 3. That is 16 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: Caleb and Calloway.