Humanverse

Callaway vs Callie

American parents have registered 70,827 Callies since 1880, against 1,221 Callaways. Callie is still ahead, with 1,754 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Callaway against Callie, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Callaway Callie

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

Callie 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 2025, when Callaway had 181 and Callie had 1,754.

Side by side

  Callaway Callie
Total US births 1,22170,827
Most in one year 1811,763
Babies in 2025 1811,754
Estimated living today 1,20055,000
Median age today 517
Peak year 20252014
Best rank 1,808th boys186th girls
Rank in 2025 1,808th175th
First recorded 19941880
Girls / boys 582 / 63970,190 / 637

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 Callies alive today are over 17; half the Callaways are over 5. That is 12 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: Callaway and Callie.